Turnitin Accuracy and Efficiency

How Successful is Turnitin in Identifying Cases of Plagiarism in UK Colleges and Universities

Turnitin is still a relatively new software package in assisting UK colleges and universities in minimising cases of plagiarism in modern day academic students. On the whole, research indicates that Turnitin has been hugely successful in ensuring that all cases of plagiarism in essay and report submissions are identified. UK colleges and universities are then given autonomy as to how they wish to discipline and penalise the students who have been caught. The service was first launched in 1997 but has only gained popularity in recent years as soon as the successful results became clear to academic institutions in the UK. In the 2010s, the software has become much more sophisticated than the launch version which has undoubtedly contributed hugely to its improved functionality and capacity to detect instances of plagiarism in students submissions.

There are some efficacy issues in regard to Turnitin software’s use in modern colleges and universities as in some cases it can increase student susceptibility to data breach. This has already occurred in some academic institutions located in North America and Canada. A further efficacy issue which has arisen with regards to school, college and university usage of Turnitin software is copyright violations. The software opens up student work to the possibility of being stolen by internet users and passed off as their own work. Equally under licencing laws, there are relatively few legal statutes presently enforced which protect the students submitted work from copyright infringement. The efficacy issues are the main source of controversy in relation to a software package that is otherwise relatively foolproof, especially in regard to improving mean average plagiarism scores in schools, colleges and universities.