Article 1 General

1. The prior learning experiences of the student body are highly valued by the University and it is recognised that academic integrity may be unfamiliar to some students due to the diversity of their backgrounds

2. Academic integrity represents the commitment to the values of honesty, fairness, respect, and responsibility for others. It encompasses the expectation that students will not engage in academic misconduct nor deliberately try to mislead any examiners in assessments. It plays a crucial role in students’ intellectual commitment and professional development as well as their successful transition to successful careers in the future

3. The University is highly committed to supporting students to develop their awareness, reflection, and abilities in imposing academic integrity throughout the study process. It aims to encourage students to understand that all work assignments must be produced authentically and they must be able to acknowledge explicitly materials that have been adopted from any sources, and to present their own findings and outcomes based on ethical practice

4. The University treats the decision as to whether academic misconduct has taken place as a matter of academic judgement and the penalties applied will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis according to the seriousness of the offence

5. Students are responsible for getting themselves familiar with and abiding by the principles outlined in the Academic Integrity Policy

6. Module leader who has a suspicion of academic misconduct by a student should proceed immediately with an investigation in consultation with the programme coordinator

Article 2 Penalties and Procedures

1. The University recognised 3 categories of academic misconduct. Category A is determined by the academic judgement of the module examiner for which it covers the practice where the student is identified to have a lack of ability to meet expected standards of academic integrity. Categories B and C captures the offences with clear intent to deceive. The principle of progressive discipline is adopted when it is decided that an act of repetitive academic misconduct for which the penalty applied will increase

1.1 Category A

• Definition: Minor errors such as missing quotation marks, mistakes or inadequate referencing/citation, and poor paraphrasing
• Penalty: Deduction of up to 25% of the total marks available for that assessment depending on the level of seriousness (e.g. 25 marks for a piece of coursework marked out of a maximum of 100) and a written warning

1.2 Category B

• Definition: Major errors such as plagiarism (misrepresenting work/outcome from others without adequate acknowledgement and citation of the sources), collusion (unauthorised collaboration with others in producing assessment submission), copying (replicating/reproducing work from others or those previously submitted), fraudulent use of information (data fabrication, embellishment, or falsification) and ethics violation (work on an assignment involving human participation or data/information collection from human subjects including survey, questionnaire and biological samples without prior ethical clearance) and repeated Category A breaches twice
• Penalty: Mark of 0 will be awarded for the entire module and a written warning

1.3 Category C

• Definition: Serious errors such as paying or helping someone else to do coursework assignments, the student acts to facilitate an academic offence, purchasing assignments, submit other’s work as one’s own including translation from one language to another and repetition of Category B breaches twice or a combination of Categories A and B
• Penalty: Mark of 0 will be awarded for the module and suspension of studies for one academic year

2. In the case of further repeated offences regardless of the category following the suspension penalty due to academic malpractice will lead to the termination of studies

3. All cases related to the suspension/termination of studies must be reported to the Registry for the final decision

4. Examiner must provide clear feedback to the student who has committed academic misconduct on how to improve and maintain good academic practice

5. All academic misconduct cases must be reported during the post-assessment moderation process

6. Students must retake the failed modules as a result of the penalty for which no fees will be refunded

Article 3 Right of Appeal

1. Students may appeal against the decision regarding the penalties by submitting a request in writing to the University Teaching and Learning Sub-Committee, but only on the grounds that there was a procedural error in the conduct of the investigation