TETFund Begins Thesis Digitisation To Curb Plagiarism In Varsities, Others

The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has commenced a process to digitise theses and projects in the nation’s higher education institutions as part of efforts to curb the ‘evil’ of plagiarism.

Executive Secretary of TETFund, Professor Suleiman Bogoro, disclosed this at a workshop on thesis digitisation project for beneficiary institutions on Wednesday in Abuja.

Bogoro said plans were also underway to ensure full digitalisation of libraries in tertiary institutions in the country noting that digitalization of the libraries would not only discourage but stop plagiarism by researchers at any level.

He lamented that important materials and thesis have been lost due to the incidence of fire outbreaks.

He said: “We want to dematerialise and electronise thesis and projects, starting with the thesis at PHDs and Masters levels across our beneficiary institutions. We hope to extend it to private institutions.

“The world has gone digital. We cannot continue to operate analogue we know that a number of materials from thesis post-graduate and even undergraduates have literary disappeared where there are fire incidences; once the physical papers are burnt, the thesis are gone but if we are able to dematerialise them, and they are stored in various forms at different repository and centres, it is easier to access and protection of the material is guaranteed.

“The other important aspect of the decision to fund the digitalization of thesis is we need people to be able to access outcome and inputs of research and that is possible if you can just press the soft bottom and you access them within seconds or minutes,” he said.

Bogoro noted that digitalisation would no doubt increase the global presence of Nigerian tertiary institutions and at the same time improve their global ranking.

“The digitalisation is one of those things that assist the rating of universities. They are looking at how many of your paperwork are electronic.

“Accessing research outcome, establishing repository that is easy to access is important. They want to see your presence or visibility of your operations either as a faculty member or university, polytechnic or college of education. That visibility can only come if you had documented them and people are able to access them,” he said.