DoIt has been used by the Hanoi National University since 2016

The universities include state-owned Hanoi National University, Hanoi Foreign Trade University, Hanoi Economics University, Hanoi University of Education, HCMC Economics University, and non-state owned universities such as Ton Duc Thang and Hoa Sen.

DoIt, the software used by Hanoi National University since 2016, can discover identical paragraphs in different documents. DoIt was developed by a team headed by Dr Vo Dinh Hieu from the Hanoi Technology University, a member school of Hanoi National University.

According to Hieu, software is being used by all the member schools of Hanoi National University to discover plagiarism, and its database has been updated and developed.

“About 5,000 people have registered to use the software. DoIt now has 10,000 documents. The software can check 30-40 documents a day,” Hieu said.

Currently, DoIt is free of charge and can be used by anyone.

A lecturer at Education University, a member school of Hanoi National University, which has been using DoIt for two months, said the school is applying software to check the theses of postgraduates. In the near future, the software will also be used in undergraduate education as well.

“Theses will have to go through the software before submission,” the lecturer said.

Turnitin, a popular software used around the world, has also been used by many Vietnam schools.

A lecturer at the Mathematics Faculty at the Hanoi University of Education said postgraduates are required to submit theses with the signatures of lecturers to certify that theses have been checked with Turnitin.

If plagiarism is discovered after the lecturers’ check, lecturers will have to take responsibility for the cheating. 

At Ton Duc Thang University, the check of theses via software has been done for the last seven years. 

Duong Thi Thuy Van, director of the IT Center, said the requirement initially worried students. 

“Students did not understand what plagiarism meant and they did not know how to quote correctly. Therefore, their works were rejected,” she said. 

“However, everything his now on the right track after one year,” she said.

There are few schools which check all essays and theses of university students. Other schools only require the check of postgraduates’ works.

At the University of Science & Technology of Hanoi (USTH), students take the subject Scientific Writing and Communication (SWC) in which they are taught how to write study reports, dissertation reports, research outlines, dissertations, and scientific articles for specialized journals.

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