Student stupidity or lack of respect for lecturer's abilities? Scenario: Student A claims he submitted his work by email. Shows evidence of email to wrong lecturer ... OK, given benefit of the doubt we look for the work and lo! buried within an otherwise inoccuous piece of Java, littered as it should be with Student A's ID number, is the ID of a different student! Student A's response "Yeah we worked together but it's my own work really!" <groan>

The real problem is that in a fit of litigation-driven paranoia the University rules on plagiarism are so beurocratic and proscriptive that it takes a significant amount of effort on the part of several (senior) members of staff to penalise just one student -- they're (obviously?!) reluctant to do this for (a) 1st years [Unofficial policy: Keep them here! Don't fail them!] (b) 'minor' offences [such as plagiarising some Java programming worth 45% of a whole module?!]

Moral: It's not just the students who lack respect for lecturer's talents -- it's the University too!