MPs in favour of the creation of the Uniform Anti-plagiarism System

252 deputies voted in favour of the amendment prepared by a group of PiS deputies, 72 were against, 120 abstained.

In accordance with previous regulations, from the academic year 2015/2016 universities were obliged to check the theses in an anti-plagiarism system. They used various systems for this purpose. According to the amendment adopted by the Sejm, universities will use the Uniform Anti-plagiarism System to check the theses. The obligation to check the papers will be postponed by two years, until the beginning of the academic year 2018/2019.

By that time, Uniform Anti-plagiarism System compatible with the national repository of written theses will be developed. By the end of 2018 universities will be required to transfer written theses defended after 2009 to the repository. This deadline - compared to the previously existing regulations - has also been extended by two years.

During the legislative work, the most controversial provision of the act was the one describing who should develop and administer the system. According to the adopted provisions, the Minister of Science orders a research institute that the minister supervises and whose subject of activity is closely linked to the provision of services in the field of information systems to develop the system.

Opposition MPs pointed out that the provision is designed in such a way that only one research institute has the chance of developing the system and its administration: the National Information Processing Institute. "It is difficult to understand why we have to limit ourselves to a single entity, a research institute. In no way is it justified that neither the entities that currently operate on this market and provide similar anti-plagiarism software, nor other universities, other institutes, may apply in the form of an open tender for the preparation of such a project. The cost of such a solution is estimated at 14 million zlotys. On the one hand we deprive all private operators of the opportunity to operate on this market, on the other hand we prevent them from participating in open tender" - said during Friday sitting of the Sejm deputy from parliamentary group Nowoczesna, Katarzyna Lubnauer.

Civic Platform\'s amendment, which would give the opportunity to prepare the system to a larger group of entities, was rejected by the Sejm on Friday.

"We indeed considered an open tender" - said on Wednesday during the parliamentary debate Deputy Minister of Science Piotr Dardziński, he noted, however, that this would involve a risk. He emphasised that IT procurement is lengthy and usually ends in failure. "We would like to eliminate this paradigm" - he declared.

"If the resources of the state include an institute, which has competence to build such a system, we have no reason for that to look for other contractors. Not only that, the institute already has part of an anti-plagiarism system, because it is the host of the national repository" - argued Dardziński.

The cost of introducing the system is estimated at 14 million zlotys. "The cost proposed by the Ministry of Science is radically lower than the costs that have to be borne in the currently functioning system of anti-plagiarism software" - noted Dardziński. "It is estimated that the annual cost of operating the system is approx. 12-15 million zlotys. We will spend 14 million zlotys at once, but we will have a system the maintenance of which will cost about $ 2 million. The investment in the system will pay off in one year, and in subsequent years we will only gain" - argued the deputy minister.

PAP - Science and Scholarship in Poland

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