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Drop in times Moulsecoomb - Cockcroft G35 Wednesday & Friday 10am - 4pm Eastbourne, Hastings & all partner colleges - by appointment Falmer - 01273 643532
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help form at the bottom of this page. It is absolutely essential that all students understand that their time at University is as a member of a wider academic community. This community is bound by the principles of academic freedom and academic integrity.
Academic integrity relies on a shared understanding of academic honesty which, at its simplest, means never fabricating results and always giving full credit for any other people’s contributions to your work. Academic freedom ensures students are free to question and test received wisdom.
If you fail to maintain your own academic integrity, whether by deliberately setting out to cheat or accidentally not following the rules, you are likely to face an investigation into Academic Misconduct.
This may lead to a disciplinary procedure that can result in failure in assessed work or in the most serious of cases, exclusion from University.
We strongly recommend that you make sure you understand the rules and regulations to avoid being accused of any of these offences.
If you are not sure you understand the rules you should discuss this with your tutor before you hand in any assessed work. The Student Advocacy & Research team can also help you with this. What advice and help can I get from The Student Advocacy team?
It is not our role to get students out of trouble. However, we always try to ensure anyone accused of academic misconduct is not in any more trouble than they deserve to be in.
Allegations of plagiarism lie behind the majority of cases of academic misconduct in the University. It is broadly defined as the passing off of someone else’s words, ideas or work as your own. It includes taking someone else’s ideas that were generated during a group discussion and submitting them later as your own, failing to reference sources or other people’s ideas properly, giving incorrect information about the source of a quotation and changing words but copying the structure of a source.
Whether it has taken place because of an honest mistake or deliberately, the University regards this as a breach of the rules and the consequences can be severe.
Academic misconduct also includes:
If you share your work with another student who then copies it, you will also face an investigation into your conduct and are likely to face similar penalties to the person who copied you.
It is vital to keep accurate notes of all the references you use in your research. Clearly indicate whether the notes you are writing are direct quotes or your own thoughts. Familiarise yourself with the referencing system used by your department and always cite your sources. The University Information Services produce Comprehensive Guidelines on Citing and Referencing
. The Centre of Learning & Teaching provides resources that will help students avoid plagiarism. Visit their website here Read through the University’s Plagiarism Awareness Pack
and if in any doubt ask your tutors. Useful information sheets can also be downloaded from www.plaigiarism.org
Tutors are able to pick up on tell tale signs of plagiarism such as changes in writing style, inconsistent quality and bibliographies that do not include recent books or those expected from the reading list. The University also uses the Turnitin Plagiarism Detection Service
. Any suspect work will be submitted by the University to this service, which in turn produces an originality report on the work.
While it could be easy to think that your work is pretty much anonymous in the sheer weight of papers your tutors have to mark every time an assessment is due, there are a few tell tale signs that can prick the senses of an academic and leave them feeling suspicious about the true author of the work they have just read. This intuition is one tutors build over years of experience, having read and marked thousands of essays and if we’re honest, recognising tricks or mistakes from their own undergraduate years.
Quite often, this suspicion will lead to nothing more than a comment on your essay about re-familiarising yourself with the correct referencing procedure or the foreboding “all your own words?” being scrawled over the offending section.
However, there are a number of grammatical and stylistic errors that go beyond raising a suspicion and can trigger a full investigation into the ownership of the work you have just submitted.
Any investigation is likely to end up with the use of Turnitin computer software to provide a comprehensive originality report on your essay. If it is then found to be not your work, you’d better have a very good reason why you shouldn’t be labelled a cheat.
Tutors, with their years of practise behind them are likely to have a bad feeling about your work if:
This list hasn’t been produced to help you get around your tutors, rather to give you an indication of what might raise a suspicion that your work isn’t your own! Developed from a short article by Dr Fiona Duggan, Head of Advice and Guidance, JISC Plagiarism Advisory Service. What happens if you are accused of academic misconduct?
Your Head of School will assess the allegation and make a decision as to whether it should be treated as a minor or major case. You will be informed of which piece of work is being considered and also be given the opportunity to view the work concerned prior to the interview. This will help you to understand the nature of the allegation. If no direct number is given in your letter, contact your School Office to arrange to do this.
Ask for advice at this stage by contacting the Student Advocacy & Research Service. We will be able to support you and help you get your side of the story over.
In a minor case you will be asked to attend an interview with your Head of School. You can be accompanied by a person of your choice.
There will be a discussion with the Head of School about your work and why they believe you have committed academic misconduct. You will be asked whether you knowingly submitted work that was not your own. If you did, you should admit it. If you did not you should say so and explain how you approached the work. The more you can do to defend the work and demonstrate that you have ownership of the work you submitted the stronger your case will be.
If you did knowingly submit work that was not your own it can be very helpful to write a statement of mitigation explaining any specific circumstances that may have led to you committing academic misconduct.
After the discussion the Head of School will make a decision as to whether there is a case and what the outcome should be. Potential Outcomes
You are able to give a reasonable account of your work and the Head of School decides that there is no case to answer this is the end of the process and no record will be placed on your file
You admit that academic misconduct has taken place and the case is upheld.
You will be asked if you have committed academic misconduct in any other work you have submitted. If you have it is better to admit it now rather than be found out later. This now becomes a major case and goes to an investigation panel.
Otherwise, you should be informed of the consequences of further academic misconduct and given advice on how to avoid it in the future. Where possible the work will be marked as per the normal assessment procedures.
It is likely that your mark will receive a low / fail grade and you will have to repeat the work later. The Exam Board will inform you of this.
If you fail to attend the meeting or deny the allegation, without providing good evidence to support your case the misconduct will then be treated as a major case.
An interview with an Investigating Panel will be held. You should be given at least five working days notice of when this will take place and are free to choose who you would like to be accompanied by to this meeting. The Student Advocacy team can support you with this. You can submit a written statement of mitigation to the Investigating Panel regarding the allegation. This can help you clarify questions surrounding the work. Following the meeting, the Investigating Panel produces a report which is sent to the Chair of the Course Examinations Board. You should be informed of the outcome of the meeting within five working days. Although the Investigating Panel makes recommendations it is the Course Examination Board that determines the final outcome/penalty. Potential Outcomes?
If it is determined that there is no evidence of misconduct there will be no penalty and no record will be placed on your student file. If it is determined that academic misconduct has occurred then outcomes can vary from having to repeat work to being expelled from University.
If you on a course that has professional accreditation the University may be obliged to inform the professional association of your academic misconduct. This should be clarified when the Exam Board write to you with the outcome. This could also call into question your Fitness to Practise in some professions. Yes - The decision made by the Course Examination Board can be appealed using the Appeals Procedure.
Students’ Union
Student Advocacy & Education Research Co-ordinator
University of Brighton Office of the Independent Adjudicator
Falmer - By appointment over the summer
Grand Parade - UBSU Office Tuesday & Thursday 10am - 4pm
Moulsecoomb - 01273 643328
Grand Parade - 01273 643191
ubsuacademic@brighton.ac.uk
Download our brief guide to academic misconduct here
Our contact details are at the top of this page; you can e-mail us on ubsuacademic@brighton.ac.uk or go to the
Students’ Advocate - Individual Representation
Nicola Trelawny
nt68@brighton.ac.uk
01273 643532
Anthony Lewis
a.r.lewis@brighton.ac.uk
01273 643328
Carol Burns
Secretary to the Academic Board
Registry, University of Brighton
Mithras House
Lewes Road,
Brighton
BN2 4AT
c.a.burns@brighton.ac.uk
www.oiahe.org.uk
enquiries@oiahe.org.uk
0118 959 9813
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