Law students were the worst offenders, with 62 per cent of them breaking the university plagiarism rules, according to student newspaper Varsity.

Founded almost 800 years ago, Cambridge, together with Oxford University, is one of Britain's most prestigious seats of learning and was No.3 this year behind the United States' Harvard and Yale in the annual survey of international universities by The Times of London Higher Education supplement.

More than 1,000 students, or less than 5 per cent of the student population, responded to a questionnaire in the newspaper, which asked whether they had ever plagiarised someone else's work, made up statistics or fieldwork, or bought an essay.

Only 5 per cent of students in the survey said they had been caught plagiarising, reported the Daily Mail.

The Telegraph said the university was now planning to introduce special plagiarism detection software into its computer systems to tackle the problem.

'It's a depressing set of statistics,' MrRobert Foley, a professor in biological anthropology at King's College, was quoted as saying by Varsity.

The Telegraph said many students had blamed their intense workload for cutting corners, while others said they did not understand the university's definition of plagiarism and were surprised to know they had broken the rules.

'Sometimes when I'm really fed up, I Google the essay title, copy and throw everything onto a blank word document and jiggle to order a bit. They usually end up being the best essays,' said a Pembroke College land economy student.

An oriental studies student at Girton College told the Telegraph: 'Of course I use other people's ideas without acknowledging them, but I didn't think that this made me a plagiarist.'

Some students said they had continued cheating as they were not afraid of the consequences.

'I have used the same essay three times in two years for three different supervisors. I wasn't particularly worried about being caught,' said an English student at Homerton College.

Mr Ant Bagshawe, academic affairs officer at the student union, told the Telegraph the university needed to do more to punish cheats.

'If the university is not going to take teaching people about plagiarism seriously, then it has to expect headline figures like these,' he said.

But the university denied that it does not take plagiarism seriously.

'The university regards deliberate acts of plagiarism as a serious and potentially disciplinary offence which can lead to failure to obtain, or withdrawal of a degree,' it said in a statement. The school added that 'disciplinary regulations and the penalty framework are under review to ensure that they are appropriate and clear, to ensure that disciplinary action can be taken as necessary'.

Sabrina L. :D