By Maya Aziz
This current academic year has seen an increase in the illegal downloading of academic material by university students across the UK. Academic publisher Perlego recorded 300,000 searches on piracy sites in September this year alone.
The surge in illegal downloads coincides with a rise in the cost of living in the UK. The Office for National Statistics reported that more than 90% of university students said that their living costs had increased compared to the previous year.
On LSE’s ‘Assessment Discipline and Academic Misconduct’ webpage, which students can consult for information about proper academic conduct, there is no information regarding the download of illegal material and its consequences.
When asked, LSE students gave mixed answers surrounding whether they had pirated academic material during their studies.
Sonya* told The Beaver that they regularly download material illegally as they find LSE’s resources to be “too limited”. Tilly* disclosed that she regularly downloads material from external websites, stating that while LSE often has the physical versions of the texts she requires, the online access is limited, and “downloading it online is more convenient”.
On the other hand, Alex* reported that she has not pirated any academic material whilst at LSE because she has not needed to, concluding that “LSE does a good job of providing resources for free to all students”. Erin* said that, although she had illegally downloaded material at her previous university, she has not had to do so at LSE because the “free material is vast”.
Multiple students expressed the opinion that, as a minimum standard, the material that appears on reading lists should be accessible online through LSE’s Moodle page. Emil* explains that processing times factor into his decisions to pirate academic resources, believing that the time it takes to get hold of material “is often longer than students are willing to wait, given assessment deadlines”. Alice* added that when materials are only available offline it is “irritating”.
As an international student, Sonya pointed out that the academic resources being “mainly in English” encourages them to pirate materials that are in their native language.
For many students, both those who had and had not illegally downloaded material, the general issue with LSE’s access to academic materials was not a lack of material, but rather a lack of online access.
An LSE spokesperson said: “LSE Library is one of the largest social sciences libraries in the world and is a national research library. It provides a number of services to students to support student learning and research, with extensive collections including books, journals, statistics, government publications, newspapers, datasets, and more.
“Titles on all reading lists are available through the library, and are purchased in online formats where possible, or in print if not. This ensures that all students can access what they need to read, whenever they want, wherever they are.
“The Library Resources Guide covers what is available across all collections, and students can use Library Search to search for specific titles. If students cannot find the materials they need at LSE Library, they can use our Get It For Me service to recommend that we purchase a title or a specific chapter.
“LSE students can contact their department librarian with any questions about resources, and also have access to the University of London’s central library, Senate House Library.”
* All names in this article have been changed for the purpose of anonymity
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