Plagiarism and Academic Performance of Students in Federal Tertiary Institutions of Adamawa State.

Abstract

This study investigated the Plagiarism and its Effect on Academic Performance of Students in Federal Tertiary Institutions in Adamawa State. To achieve this, two objectives and two research questions were formulated. Survey research method was adopted for the study. One hundred and twenty questionnaires were administered on the Students of Federal Tertiary Institution in Adamawa State that is, forty each in Modibbo Adamawa University of Technology Yola, Federal College of Education Yola and Federal Polytechnic Mubi Yola Campus. Descriptive statistic was used to answer the research questions while inferential statistic of chi square was used to test the null hypotheses. The findings revealed that: The bulk of the Students of Federal Tertiary Institutions in Adamawa State are completely ignorant of the concept “plagiarism “as a crime and its consequences; lack of orientation and the desire to earn more grades constitute the major reason why students in Federal Tertiary Institutions in Adamawa State spend their time plagiarizing. The study recommends that: the managements of Federal Tertiary Institutions in Adamawa State should find a way of organizing programs such as library instruction/skills to their students on how to use other people’s work without plagiarizing to avoid its consequences.