What is academic misconduct?

Academic misconduct is defined by the University as acts or omissions by a student that has the potential to give an unfair advantage in assessments. A student's intention is not relevant to whether they have committed an offence.

Academic misconduct can take a number of forms including, but not limited to:

• Plagiarism: the University defines this as inserting words, concepts or images from the work of someone else without acknowledging that it was their work or representing someone else’s work as your own. This includes, but is not limited to:
  • working with or sharing work with others to develop a submission that was    to be assessed on an individual basis (collusion)
  • acquiring work to pass off as your own (contract plagiarism)
  • providing work to someone else for them to pass off as their own
  • assuming the identity of another student or allowing another to person to assume your identity in order to mislead or deceive (personation and impersonation)
  • passing off work as original that has been generated using Artificial Intelligence

• Failing to declare that a third party has helped in the presentation of your assessed work. This includes the use of generative Artificial Intelligence

• Getting help from third parties in relation to proof-reading, correcting English or a target language where the learning outcomes include a specific requirement to demonstrate ability in written English or a target language

• Fabricating results from laboratory or other work or misrepresenting data

• Taking unauthorised textual materials into an assessment venue or ancillary areas such as a cloakroom or toilets. This includes any form of writing on paper or on the body

• Having an unauthorised mechanical or electronic device on your person within an assessment venue or ancillary area such as a cloakroom or toilets

• Passing off the work of others as your own during an online assessment, including content and/or writing produced by Artificial Intelligence

• Falsely claiming that you have qualifications that you do not validly hold or, experience that you have not acquired or, falsely claiming that you have undertaken work that you have not.

For students registered for taught postgraduate awards who engage in research and research management, academic misconduct can take a number of forms including, but not limited to:

• mismanagement or inadequate preservation of data and/or primary materials, including failure to:

  • keep clear and accurate records of the research procedures followed and the results obtained, including interim results

  • hold records securely in paper or electronic form

  • make relevant primary data and research evidence accessible to others for reasonable periods after the completion of the research: data should normally be preserved and accessible for 10 years, but for projects of clinical or major social, environmental or heritage importance, for 20 years or longer

  • manage data according to the research funder’s data policy, and all relevant legislation

  • wherever possible, deposit data permanently within a national collection;

• breach of duty of care, which involves deliberately, recklessly, or by gross negligence:

  • disclosing improperly the identity of individuals or groups involved in research without their consent, or other breach of confidentiality

  • placing any of those involved in research in danger, whether as subjects, participants or associated individuals, without their prior consent, and without appropriate safeguards even with consent; this includes reputational danger where that can be anticipated

  • not taking all reasonable care to ensure that the risks and dangers, the broad objectives, and the sponsors of the research, are known to participants or their legal representatives, to ensure appropriate informed consent is obtained properly, explicitly and transparently

  • not observing legal and reasonable ethical requirements or obligations of care for animal subjects, human organs or tissue used in research; or for the protection of the environment;

• cheating or otherwise disclosing information with the intent of gaining for oneself or for another an unfair advantage

• intentional damage to, or removal of, the research-related property of another

• intentional non-compliance with the terms and conditions governing the award of external funding for research or with the University’s policies and procedures relating to research, including accounting requirements, ethics, and health and safety regulations.