The Dean, Benson Idahosa University (BIU) School of Postgraduate Studies, Prof. Bamidele Sanni has stated that the pressure to ‘publish or perish’ has steadily increased in recent years, thereby contributing to the high rate of plagiarism in the academia.
He disclosed this during an interview with the Communication and Brand Strategy (CBSU) correspondent.
According to him, it is generally believed that in the higher education system in Nigeria, an academic who is not publishing will soon perish or remain unannounced in the system. In order to avoid perishing, most of them would want to publish so many papers, and in the process they get involved in plagiarism.
He added that the trend to publish has taken many to the top hierarchy without specialization in their fields.
“For instance, to be an Associate Professor you need a minimum of twelve publications, for Professors you need a minimum of 18 publications and this varies from University to University. These numbers of publication has played a vital role in the selection, appointment, promotions and approval of research grants.”
He added: “Plagiarism is a crime, it is because we are putting too much emphasis on publish or perish; If you don’t publish you cannot be promoted.”
The Dean who doubles as the Chairman, Committee of Deans of Postgraduate Studies (CDPGS) also noted that lack of facilities for lecturers to work with, result to them embracing the unethical means, plagiarism.
“If you are in the humanities, it is a matter of thinking in your field, in science we do experiments, though some Universities may not have the adequate resources for them to do research; hence encouraging plagiarism.
On the deplorable state of education in the nation, he blamed the government for not paying proper attention to education by funding it adequately.
He noted that The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) careful stipulated that a minimum of 20 percent of the National Budget should be allocated to education. But regrettably, President Muhammadu Buhari allocated only 7.04% of the 8.6 trillion 2018 budget to education.