Academic Integrity
Academic integrity is an essential component of fair assessment. As such it is essential that the University’s provision and standards are safeguarded by both maintaining academic integrity and preventing academic misconduct through dishonesty or fraud. The University takes academic misconduct seriously while acknowledging that an educational and supportive approach is desirable.
Academic Integrity is defined by the International Center for Academic Integrity as embodying six values: honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility and courage (ICAI, 2019). If these values are adhered to then assessment will be fair.
Staff can learn more about how to recognise different forms of academic misconduct (plagiarism, collusion, contract cheating etc.) and how to design academic misconduct out of assessment through the Academic Integrity Toolkit and by attending a Help Navigating Academic Misconduct workshop which can be booked through StaffLearn. Staff can also access guidance on using the Academic Misconduct procedures, including templates and forms, from the staff-only Misconduct Procedures webpage.
The University’s Academic Integrity Policy was approved by Academic Board for implementation in August 2024:
University procedures for dealing with alleged cases of academic misconduct are detailed in the Student Academic Misconduct Procedures.
Advice and Guidance on using Turnitin is available from the TEL Knowledge base for staff pages.
Further guidance on academic integrity is available from the QAA (Quality Assurance Agency)
Contract Cheating
If you suspect that a student's work has been contract cheated, please consult the Contract Cheating - Guidelines Actions and Responsibilities checklist in the Downloads section.
Contract cheating, the practice of students engaging a third-party to complete assignments which they then submit as their own work, is on the rise in Higher Education. As such, it is essential to raise awareness of its risks to both staff and students.
Essay mills are increasingly being used by, and indeed are promoting their services to, students. This is when a student pays money in order to engage someone to write an essay or other assessment for them. Contract cheating can also include a student asking a friend or family member to write their work for them, or downloading an essay from a website.
The poster below (downloadable version available on the right), highlights some of the key areas you should be aware of relating to contract cheating and how you can support your students: