University of the People Partners with Unicheck on Zero-Tolerance for Plagiarism Policy

PASADENA, California, Nov. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- University of the People (UoPeople) – the first non-profit, tuition-free, American accredited online university, has partnered with Unicheck – a cloud-based plagiarism detection tool, on a Zero-Tolerance for Plagiarism Policy to bolster the university's efforts to uphold standards of academic honesty and rigor.

Unicheck's unique plagiarism detection software will scan every paper submitted by UoPeople students to automatically look for any copied work. This innovative tool will be functional as of today, the first day of Term 2 for UoPeople. 

"The University of the People prides itself on providing the highest quality of education," said Shai Reshef, President of UoPeople. "Unicheck's great plagiarism tool adds to the quality of the education and assessment we can provide. We are very grateful for Unicheck's donation of this software. It is one more step we are taking to further enhance our offerings and ensure that students everywhere have access to a high quality, tuition-free education."

Plagiarism is an issue in U.S. higher education. According to surveys of college students, 36% of undergraduates admit to paraphrasing/copying sentences from Internet sources without proper citation and 38% from written sources.                                              

To ensure academic honesty and better serve its rapidly growing student body, UoPeople has chosen to combat plagiarism with a multi-faceted approach. This includes not only Unicheck's unique technology, but also the provision of new tools for student education and awareness, and a dedicated academic oversight board to review and handle all instances of plagiarism. While plagiarism is a major issue for every higher education institution, UoPeople, equipped with Unicheck technology, aims to eliminate the phenomena from its education experience entirely.

Unicheck is used in more than 600 K-12 and higher education institutions worldwide. The tool is also used as a stand-alone checker by individuals such as writers, editors and bloggers. In 2018, it reached one million users.

"UoPeople is a real educational revolution. We have been a proud partner with this innovative institution for several years now, and we are excited to expand the partnership to include all its students. By supporting UoPeople we stay true to our mission and vision — to improve the quality of education and its accessibility for all. We see our cooperation as a social input and an opportunity to increase the educational quality of UoPeople." Said Serhii Tkachenko, CEO of Unicheck.

Contact:
Sarah Vanunu
Director of Global Public Relations, University of the People
US: 626-219-8402; [email protected] 

Snizhana Pushkar
Global PR Manager, Unicheck
[email protected] 

About Unicheck
Unicheck is a cloud-based plagiarism detection checker that finds similarities, citations and references in a set of text. Unicheck is primarily used in K-12 and higher education, counting more than 600 institutions worldwide.

About University of the People
University of the People (UoPeople) is the Education Revolution. It is the first non-profit, tuition-free, American accredited online university. Boasting more than 17,000 students enrolled in its ten-year history, UoPeople is designed to open access to higher education globally by helping qualified high school graduates overcome financial, geographic, political, and personal constraints keeping them from collegiate studies. The university offers two-year associate's and four-year bachelor's degree programs in business administration, computer science, and health science as well as an MBA and M.Ed. program. The university is supported by The Gates Foundation, Ford Foundation, Hewlett Foundation, Fondation Hoffmann, and companies such as HP, Google, Microsoft, Intel, Western Union, Estee Lauder and many more.