Plagiarism

The Senate Office information relates mainly to student plagiarism as a student conduct matter for instances where plagiarism is discovered or suspected in student work.

University Statement on Plagiarism

Standard University Declaration of Originality Form

A Standard University Declaration of Originality Form  [doc] for Coursework Submissions has been developed following agreement by Senate. All assignments must now be submitted with a copy of this coversheet signed by the student (an electronic version is available for assignments submitted on Moodle).

The primary purpose of the coversheet is to alert students to and remind them of the University's policy on plagiarism when they are working on and submitting assignments.

Schools are required to download and "personalise" the coversheet with their own name after which it will be ready for use. Specific School requirements, such as word counts, may be incorporated by adding new lines or making minor amendments to existing text.

How to report an incident (Staff)

Members of staff who suspect that student work contains plagiarism must report it to the Head of School. Depending on the severity of the plagiarism being considered, the case may be dealt with by the School, or alternatively reported to the Senate Assessors for Student Conduct. The Guidelines for Heads of School should be followed. The Head of School may nominate a member of staff to act on his or her behalf in managing plagiarism cases. Schools must report all cases where plagiarism is found to have occurred to the Senate Office (email: Janet Fleming) even if the case has been dealt with at School level. This assists with the identification of second or subsequent offences.

Guidelines for Academic Staff on deterring plagiarism

Policy for the use of the plagiarism prevention software Turnitin

The policy was reviewed and updated in session 2011-12. Information for staff on how to get started with Turnitin is available here.