DO STUDENTS IN HIGHER EDUCATION KNOW THE REAL MEANING OF PLAGIARISM? J. Gonçalves, B. Santos, P. Almeida Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture - University of Beira Interior (PORTUGAL) Abstract In order to assess the knowledge and perception of higher education students about the concept of plagiarism and its implications, two sets of online surveys were performed on a group of students of the Civil Engineering and Architecture Department at the University of Beira Interior. The surveys were conducted at two different moments using two distinct approaches and along two academic semesters. In the first semester, a presentation on plagiarism and good practices of quotation and bibliographic referencing were held during lessons classes of curricular units from different academic years, while in the second semester the choice was a workshop presentation extended to all students. In both cases, online surveys were conducted on students before and after attending the presentation/workshop aiming to evaluate the change in their perception about the concept of plagiarism. The paper presents the main conclusions drawn from the surveys as well as the main guidelines resulting from their analysis, in order to promote a firmer institutional policy, enhance the dissemination of relevant information for a clear definition of the problem and to allow an effective accountability when detected. Keywords: Plagiarism, students, higher education. 1 INTRODUCTION The identification of some cases of plagiarism in academic works within the courses taught on the Civil Engineering and Architecture Department (DECA) of the University of Beira Interior (UBI), in conjunction with the lack of knowledge regarding quotation and bibliographic references preparation along with the relaxed reaction of students when confronted with the practice of plagiarism, lead the authors (assistant professors in the DECA-UBI) to reflect on these issues seeking answers to the following questions:  Do students in higher education understand the true meaning of plagiarism?  Do students understand the severity and consequences associated with the practice of plagiarism?  How can we act in order to give answer to the preceding questions?  How can we improve the dissemination of the real meaning of plagiarism and thus help fighting this practice in higher education? In order to answer these questions a methodology was developed and implemented by the authors in DECA-UBI. The description of two distinct approaches to address this situation, as well as the main conclusions that resulted from its application are presented in the following sections of this article. 2 METHODOLOGY Like in other national and international studies (1) (2), the proposed methodology is based on the conduction of surveys that aim to characterize the perception of the concept of plagiarism by students. Two identical surveys were applied to the sample, one before and other after a presentation with information on the subject. This presentation of concepts and good academic practice guidelines aimed to clarify the meaning and scope of plagiarism (main types of plagiarism) and to provide students with the necessary knowledge and tools that enable them to quote and make lists of references in an appropriate manner, as a way to fight plagiarism. The used methodology comprises two distinct approaches in time, space and dimension of the targeted audience. The flowchart shown in Fig. 1 presents the different steps considered in the implementation of both approaches. Proceedings of EDULEARN14 Conference 7th-9th July 2014, Barcelona, Spain ISBN: 978-84-617-0557-3 0940