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Academic misconduct

University guidelines

You are responsible for ensuring that your work does not contravene the University's rules on academic misconduct, which are set out in regulation 5. The University takes a very serious view of such misconduct and penalties will be applied to students who are found to have attempted to mislead examiners. Forms of academic misconduct include:

• cheating: deliberate failure to comply with the rules governing examinations, e.g. by making arrangements to have unauthorised access to information;
• collusion: assisting another individual to gain advantage by unfair means, or receiving such assistance yourself;
• fabrication: misleading the examiners by presenting work for assessment in a way which intentionally or recklessly suggests that you have collected factual information which has not in fact been collected, or falsifies factual information;
• personation: producing work to be submitted as that not of yourself but of another, or assuming the identity of another individual in order to deceive the examiners, or soliciting another individual to act or appear as yourself, or to produce work on your behalf;
• plagiarism: incorporating within your work without appropriate acknowledgement material derived from the work (published or unpublished) of another.

The penalties for academic misconduct will depend on the seriousness of the offence. Students found guilty of academic misconduct may, for example, have their degree class reduced, fail their degree or be asked to leave the University. If you have any queries about what constitutes academic misconduct, and in particular about the proper attribution of material derived from another's work, you should seek advice from your supervisors or tutors.

Departmental arrangements

At the start of your research training, you are required to complete an on-line academic misconduct exercise on the VLE. Once completed, please bring the certificate to the Biology Graduate School office and sign a declaration to confirm that you have read and understood the University Regulations on academic misconduct. If any aspect of the regulations is unclear to you, it is essential that you discuss your uncertainty with your supervisor before signing.