The present work investigates the index of plagiarism in dissertations in the field of engineering at an undergraduate level in a higher education institution in Mexico. Through the on-line program SafeAssign, we analyzed 243 college dissertations and found evidence of plagiarism half of them. Ethical and teaching implications are analyzed. It is recommended to reduce the plagiarism, strategies such as reducing the extension of works, the systematic use of programs to screen for originality and to stress the importance of it originality in academic work.
