Assessments reflect your learning and are key to your academic progress. We want students to feel confident that assessments are fair, and marks awarded consistently.
That is why the University looks out for signs for academic malpractice, where someone may be looking to gain an unfair academic advantage over another person.
Academic malpractice includes:
- Plagiarism: copying the work of someone or something else, including AI tools such as ChatGPT, without acknowledging this in the work. You even need to acknowledge any of your own work that you have submitted before.
- Collusion: working with someone else to produce the same or similar work for assessment.
- Falsifying results: intentionally altering or inventing data or research findings.
- Examination malpractice: taking materials or devices that you’re not meant to have into exams.
- Contract cheating: getting someone else to write your work. This includes using sites that sell essays and exam papers.
There is more information in our student guidance on plagiarism and other forms of academic malpractice. You can also find the full definitions of malpractice, the University’s expectations of you, how the University detects cases and how cases are handled in the Academic Malpractice Procedure.
Consequences of academic malpractice – it’s really not worth it
Academic penalties
Committing malpractice just isn’t worth it. Examiners know your subject well and can spot anything out of the ordinary, for example, by using tools like Turnitin, which shows where your work is similar to something else.
Even in exams, there’ll be invigilators making sure the rules are being followed.
It may lead to your studies being penalised in some way, varying from mark deductions to zero grades, and you might even be denied the opportunity to retake the exam.
Read the University’s guidance on academic penalties.
Fraud and extortion (blackmail)
Additionally, we are aware of instances where students have used sites or chat groups to purchase what they thought were exam papers for their current exams – only to be sent past papers once payment has been made (remember, you can easily access past papers free of charge anytime).
In extreme cases students have been exposed to blackmail by the people behind the fraudulent site who threaten to expose their ‘cheating’ to the University or friends and family.
These sites seem to offer a quick win, but you are leaving yourself open to the risk of academic penalties as well as personal (and possibly financial) distress.
Top tips to help you avoid academic malpractice
- Make sure your work is original and give credit where it’s due, by taking steps to show the reader where it has come from, such as in a reference, quotation marks and bibliography.
- Complete the Academic Integrity course which has been updated, to provide new and engaging content to help you navigate academic malpractice.
- My Learning Essentials also has resources on plagiarism, referencing, planning work, revision and note taking to help you build robust academic skills.
- Familiarise yourself with academic malpractice and use the resources provided by your School and the Library.
- Read up on assessment rules and follow the guidelines on where to store items such as phones.
- If you’re dealing with personal issues that are affecting your studies, your School or Faculty is here to support you. You can request mitigating circumstances (for undergraduate and postgraduate students) or change of circumstances (for postgraduate research students).
- Do not engage with external sites or chat groups that offer to sell you essays or exam papers.
- For tips on everything else, including managing time, study tips and exam wellbeing keep an eye on student news.
Good luck with all your exams and assessments.