Plagiarism in the South African higher education system: Discarding a common-sense understanding

Many universities around the world grapple with ways to manage plagiarism successfully. The approach taken depends on the understanding of plagiarism within institutions. This emerges from a study on the conceptualisations of and responses to plagiarism in the South African Higher Education system. Data was collected from 25 South African public universities primarily in the form of what are known as 'plagiarism policies' and other related documents, supplemented by interviews with plagiarism committee members. Data suggest that the approach to plagiarism signifies a common-sense understanding of teaching and learning, and in particular, the acquisition of disciplinary writing practices. These understandings are centred on personal experiences and dominant discourses rather than on theoretically interrogated positionss.