Author: Aurora Shpataj
Concerned about the phenomenon of buying and selling diploma subjects, academician Artan Fuga reiterates that this phenomenon is a crime. Contacted by "Sinjalizo", Professor Fuga insists on the damage caused to education.
"In general, these websites that offer this type of service are the first actor that makes the process possible, it seems to me that they are an illegal business, it should be considered an illegal business. A business that goes against public interests, education, and school. It's like there are tutorials on the web on how to rob a bank, how to kill a person, how to destroy a private or public good. It's the same thing, so let's say it's bad business. "
What Professor Fuga does not hesitate to ring the bells for is related to a phenomenon that does not stop. Although, the denunciations have been many and at the same time the investigations. The flourishing online offering of diplomas in every field and educational level is done against payment. Control filters are almost non-existent.
"Sinjalizo" started tracking these pages, presenting herself as a student seeking a diploma of various levels. First, a site offering degree topics was contacted, which required a Master of Science degree. After a few hours, the answer was; "If you have any idea you ok, if you want we can suggest. "
After entering the conversation with the site, we also asked how much the degree costs. The offer, on the other hand, was for a topic in both English and Albanian.
"The price of a diploma in the Albanian language is 200 thousand ALL, while in English it is 250 euros. "
Surfing the Internet to buy knowledge continued on another website, but this time for a bachelor's degree.
The response that came back to us from the site was: “The topic of the bachelor's degree with 35-40 pages costs 150 euros. "
When you learn that you have been stolen!
But plagiarism or receiving diplomas made by third parties has begun to harm even good students. This was the case of Fatjona, who studied Public Relations at the University of Tirana. She tells us how she came into contact with the person who had stolen her thesis topic.
"Unfortunately, this phenomenon has become disturbing for students who complete the subject of the diploma themselves. It happened to me personally that an acquaintance of mine accidentally started my thesis topic.”- says Fatjona, a former student of the University of Tirana. She tells "Sinjalizo" how she managed to prevent the student from being represented in the commission with her topic.
"At first I was stunned and directly asked him where he got it, but he didn't give me any information. Then I asked him to give up presenting a plagiarized diploma or else I would make a problem in the rectory and in the committee. Only after the threat if I could express myself like that, he gave up. "
Professor Artan Fuga considers this process as penalizing good students.
"There is a problem here, because by assigning 9 or 10 to those who receive them willingly, we penalize those students who work. Because those who work, probably bring them with a poorer quality than those who buy them. Because the latter buy them from a man who may be a doctor, while the one who makes them himself may be a student who has his own defects, has his own limitations, but has done a better job than him the other. Here the whole value system is turned upside down. To the student, I have nothing to ask of you; he just has to work for himself to tap the market, he has to increase the demand for lecturers. "
The university is silent
Sinjalizo also sent an official request for information to the University of Tirana where we asked for information to be made available to us on questions such as: how many plagiarized diplomas have they managed to identify over the last 5 years, at what level of study have students caught plagiarizing, in bachelor, master, with what formula do they identify that diplomas are plagiarized, and what happens to students who are caught plagiarizing. The University of Tirana did not provide data on how many violations were found in five years.
"University of Tirana based on law no. 80/2015, "On Higher Education and Scientific Research in Higher Education Institutions in the Republic of Albania", in the by-laws issued in its implementation, the Statute and Regulations of the UT, the Code of Ethics, as well as the regulations for graduation in the First, Second and Third Cycle of "Executive Master" studies, the phenomenon of plagiarism or "academic dishonesty" is foreseen as a violation"."
But while plagiarism is unacceptable, no light is shed on this phenomenon as revealed by the competent bodies.
"All diploma theses are done under the guidance of an academic staff as the scientific leader of the topic. The thesis contains a number of requirements and criteria of form and content. The thesis complies with the format requirements, regulations and rules of academic ethics that apply at UT, where plagiarism is prohibited. If the paper is not presented in the required format, it will not be accepted until all format requirements are met.. "
The only way to identify plagiarizing students for the University is in the hands of the degree supervisor. This means that there is no specific formula for performing breach detection.
"As for how possible cases of plagiarism can be identified, this is first related to the leading academic staff, who guide and help students in the selection of literature and writing the thesis, assist the student in extracting the results, processing them, as well as the thesis according to the approved guidelines. The leader guarantees the quality of the results and approves or not, if the paper is complete to be presented to the committee, including plagiarism. "
This vacuum is also confirmed by academician Fuga.
"I do not know much about this university level, but I know that it is not so easy to detect plagiarism, it is not impossible, but not easy either. This must be understood. Anyway, there are some mechanisms that you can find on google or on the web that you can search for. From the simplest method that a different text or part of text is obtained if those phrases, that text or part of text has similarity or copy of some other text. This is an ethical duty, it is in the ethical regulation of UT and scientific research. But as far as I know, there is automation, a digital program that is recommended to use, I don't know that there is."
Fuga says that teachers should have no complaints about this situation, because they have the power to prevent it.
"So the first suggestion is; no complaints. Those businesses are illegal, then they should be declared illegal. As teachers, we have nothing to do with them. A student goes and does that thing, and it seems like an original work to me, the fault is mine as a teacher. "
But the university has a different point of view in the response sent to "Signalizo". "The leader has the responsibility to make the student aware of the risk and consequences in cases of detection of fraud, forgery and plagiarism. At the moment of submission of the thesis topic, if plagiarism is detected, the supervisor has the right not to approve the thesis defense."
