FEBRUARY24_UNIKUM_WEB

is not available in uniformity, retrievable physically and digitally
every day to every student equally, regardless of whether they are
native Norwegian speakers or foreign students who use English to
operate internationally, then those, like Duncan, who moved their
lives to Norway from across the globe in search of opportunity will
have done so in vain. And will go elsewhere.
Your reporter and Duncan were due to start and finish their
respective two-year master’s degrees over the same semesters.
While he could’ve been working on his master’s these by now,
he has, instead, independently gathered a breathtaking amount
of information surrounding the issue of plagiarism at UiA with
respect to his own case, in forensic detail, and, more widely, the
international student population for which he volunteered as
an Active Member and Buddy in the Erasmus Student Network
(ESN) from January last year. Already delayed two years by the
coronavirus pandemic, his career prospects (not to mention his
health and wellbeing) have been hampered by another two years.
While UiA moves on with yet more international students, for him,
however, the trial continues.
Several questions remain:
Why did Duncan receive the harshest punishment for plagiarism
despite a clean academic record and concerted effort to abide by
its submission guidelines?
Why was the hearing extension request denied and no witness
testimony heard by the Court of Appeal when it is obliged to
consider all the available evidence relative to the case?
Why are students prevented from accessing the algorithmic
citation checking software for documents available only via the
staff version of Ouriginal/Urkund?
If such weight is given to the computerised text analysis tool,
during both the submission and subsequent appeals process, why
are students unable to access it, to avoid potential accusations of
plagiarism and/or self-plagiarism?
If Khrono were able to establish how many UiA students were
accused of plagiarism and self-plagiarism, why are UiA unable to
distinguish these under the general term of cheating?
If foreign students can succumb to exclusion, why are the annual
reports in Norwegian only?
Duncan now lives with his girlfriend in Germany and intends
to undertake an equivalent two-year course at the Hamburg
University of Applied Sciences from this September while working
and learning the language simultaneously. Professor Schortgen
was an Associate Dean of Faculty with the University of Utah,
Asia Campus during the Spring semester last year, his last as a
teacher at UiA before retiring. Despite repeated attempts, he didn’t
respond to our requests for comment.
A statement from the ‘Additional Comments’ document is, Duncan
believes, ‘the best way to dictate my feelings about what happened,
that I never was running from responsibility or accountability, but
merely seeking fair and just process:
‘My goal is to be disciplined in a manner that is fair and just,
aligned with the objective reality that occurs in contextual
relationships and interactions between a subordinate
(student) and superiors (faculty, staff, university) that led
to an accidental occurrence of plagiarism that was neither
intentional, willful [sic], nor of gross negligence when
considering the evidence and facts of what occurred. I strongly
desire to address this gap noted during discussions with STA
and ESN as a continuous issue for students attending UIA,
particularly those unfamiliar with Norwegian and the way
organizations in Norway typically organize their information.’
Use the reference management tool kildekompasset:
https://kildekompasset.no/en/
Jason Duncan was accused of plagiarism, had his
aasignment annulled and was excluded for two
semesters
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