Students should note that cheating at the university is regarded as a very serious offence. The university statutes define cheating as `seeking to obtain an unfair advantage in any examination or in any other written or practical work to be submitted or completed by a student for assessment'. The range of penalties for cheating includes disallowing the work submitted, failure in the subject, fines and, in the most serious cases, exclusion. The taking of any unauthorised material into examinations such as notes or unauthorised dictionaries will be regarded as cheating.
In the academic community, there is a particular form of cheating which is known as plagiarism. Plagiarism is the use of another person's work or idea as if it were your own. The other person may be an author, critic, lecturer or another student. When it is desirable or necessary to use another person's material, take care to include appropriate references and attribution. Do not pretend that ideas are your own and be sure not to plagiarise unintentionally. Essays, assignments, laboratory reports and tutorial solutions are generally understood to be your own work and where any such work is identical with or similar to another student's work, an assumption of plagiarism may arise. The university regards plagiarism as a very serious offence, whether committed by students or by academic staff, and any person committing such an offence will be subject to appropriate disciplinary action which may lead to exclusion. While discussion and disputation are an essential part of the intellectual process, if you wish to undertake work in conjunction with other students or if you are unsure of how or when to acknowledge your work as being derived from that of others, you are strongly encouraged to consult the lecturer concerned with that particular subject.
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