4. Staff Responsibility
The attitude of members of staff towards academic misconduct as perceived by the students can have a significant impact on the attitude of the students. Staff must teach by example. They must be scrupulous in citing other people’s ideas throughout their lectures, handouts and other work and explain what they are doing and why. They must also be seen to take the security of submitted work seriously; for example, work deposited in a pigeonhole instead of submitted online might be accessed by another student and copied. Apart from demonstrating to the student that the security of their work is something of value, security of personal information that might be attached to a submission is a requirement of the GDPR.
Students must also expect staff to actively defend academic values. Any student who is suspected of plagiarism at level 1 or 2, where it is a first offence, should be seen by the Head of School (or nominee) in accordance with University procedures. The reaction to suspected plagiarism should be consistent and should normally result in appropriate action being taken in line with the Plagiarism Statement with the severity of the penalty imposed increasing according to the extent of the plagiarism and the maturity of the student (but decreasing where there are reasonable extenuating circumstances).
Staff can seek advice on the University’s procedures for dealing with Plagiarism from the Senate Office (email student-conduct@glasgow.ac.uk in the first instance) to ensure that cases are dealt with in a fair and constructive way.