BENGALURU: Projects submitted by undergraduate students pursuing technical courses at colleges affiliated to Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) Belagavi will soon undergo a ‘plagiarism’ check.
VTU authorities are planning to introduce an anti-plagiarism software for verification of project reports submitted by final year undergraduate engineering students. This move comes after complaints that students were not putting in effort to prepare projects and were instead buying ‘readymade’ projects available in the markets.
Dr Karisiddappa, Vice-Chancellor of VTU, said, “Students need to consider project works seriously and there should not be any duplication. There are complaints that students are getting projects from their seniors who have graduated and are submitting them. As there is no proper system to check such malpractices we have decided to introduce the anti-plagiarism software.” He added that the software is yet to be developed. “We will place this before the Academic Senate and Executive Council soon. Once we receive the approval we will select a dedicated team to develop the software. There are at least 70,000 students per batch and we will need to monitor projects submitted by all of them,” explained Karisiddappa.
Sanjeev Kubakaddi, executive council member of VTU, said, “It is time that the university has guidelines for final year engineering students. Project reports carry marks. The project consultancy industry is a well-established industry and students pay `15 to `20,000 per project to get it done. This has to stop.” He added, “When we look at rural engineering colleges there are not enough faculty members to guide students. Many of them come to Bengaluru, spend two or three days here and spend money on a project report,” said Sanjeev.