The Path to an award-winning antiplagiarism system for higher education institutions

Plagiarism is an unfortunate phenomenon in the educational system at all levels that existed in the past, exists today and will exist in the future. Slovakia with its population of 5.4 million, like other countries, has been particularly confronted with theses and dissertation plagiarism. The rapid increase in the number of students of higher education institutions (HEIs), non-corresponding growth in the number of teachers, the penetration growth of information and communication technologies and internet penetration growth after 1992, together with a low level of copyright and intellectual property rights awareness contributed to the spread of plagiarism at HEIs in Slovakia. In 1992, there were 66,000 students and 8,000 teachers (8 students per teacher). The maximum number of students was reached in 2008 and 2009 (230,000); the maximum ratio of students per teacher was reached in 2007 and 2008 (almost 23). In the following graph, the year 1992 is the base for students and teachers; the right-hand axis shows internet penetration.