## 3 Results and Discussion
### Why Do Students Plagiarize?
#### 3.2.2 Weak Management of the Education System and Institutional Issues  
The second category that emerged from the data was the weak management of the education system and institutional issues, which either encouraged students to plagiarize or failed to prevent them from doing so. This category consists of six Nvivo-generated themes, i.e., a poor education system, an unhealthy academic environment, the unethical support of professionals, untrained teachers, a negative relationship between teachers and students, and a lack of strict penalties. Fourteen students indicated a poor education system. Rather than pointing out any specific issue, they blamed the overall education system of the country. According to them, the blame goes to the overall educational system and culture in the country. These perceptions are similar to the authors in [44] who pointed out the academic and research culture in Pakistani higher education. One student expressed it in these words: _\"[The] education system is poor. Problems are everywhere. Everything is bad\"_. Another student echoed the same opinion, writing, _\"It is difficult to blame one thing[.] everything in [Pakistan] education is bad\"_. In addition, six students put the blame on an unhealthy academic environment. One wrote, _\"... students who try to follow rules [and be] honest in academics suffer\"_. Similarly, talking about the academic environment in the university, another student wrote, _\"It's [a] poor academic environment. We are not taught well, [as there are] just recorded lectures. No further explanation [required]\"_. According to this student, as the students were not taught properly, they chose to plagiarize. Many students said that much greater efforts are needed in an online university to develop a strong academic culture that, to prevent such unethical practices, promotes not only academics but also moral values. Some researchers also indicated that online university students were more inclined to plagiarism [45]. Students also talked about the role of university personnel, especially faculty members, a negative relationship between teachers and students, and unethical support from professionals. Some students wrote that untrained teachers were key in the fast spread of plagiarism in Pakistan. The students mentioned that most of their teachers did not know about plagiarism, especially the proper meaning of plagiarism. One student expressed his personal experience as, _\"My teacher said you should not write five consecutive words so most of us lifted the text and then rephrased every fourth or fifth word. I later found that it was still plagiarism\"._  
In addition, students mentioned \"untrained and nonprofessional\" research supervisors, who actually encouraged the students to commit plagiarism. One student wrote that his supervisor advised him to copy and paste the literature review and later use word rephrasing software to rephrase it. The students also reported unethical support from professionals and other office staff. A few students wrote that some teaching assistants and office staff would help the students in obtaining fake plagiarism reports. Three students mentioned a negative teacher-student relationship. They pointed out that some teachers had a very aggressive and hostile attitude toward the students, and students did not feel comfortable asking them any questions. However, the standards and requirements of courses taught by those teachers were very strict, which compelled the students to plagiarize in order to produce \"quality work\". [PERSON] also advocated that, rather than policies, educational institutions should focus on positive teacher-student relationships to eliminate plagiarism [46]. Another theme that stemmed from students' writings was a lack of strict penalties for plagiarism. Thirty-six students wrote about it and described how the students committing plagiarism often got away with either a simple warning or a lighter punishment. One student wrote, \"_Penalties are flexible.