Unfair Practice

Bath Spa University has a policy on unfair practice which is incorporated in all student handbooks. 

Plagiarism Detection

Bath Spa University is a member of the JISC Plagiarism Detection Service. This online service allows staff to electronically submit essays and dissertations by students and get back an originality report for each document. All essays submitted to staff on Minerva can be checked against the services database.

As a result, any incidents of plagiarism are now more likely to be detected!

The unfair practice policy manifests itself in guidance to students as follows.

Unfair Practice Policy

Unacceptable academic practice, particularly in assessment, is known as Unfair Practice.  Unfair Practice may take a variety of forms, which cannot all be covered in detail here, but the most common are cheating in formal examinations and the plagiarism of coursework.  Others include collusion with other students for the production of written work, impersonation in examinations, or submission of fraudulent mitigating circumstances evidence. The penalties for unfair practice are severe (see below), and if students are in any doubt about what constitutes acceptable academic practice they must consult their tutors for advice.

Plagiarism is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as 'the taking and using as one's own of the thoughts, writing or inventions of another'. It does not matter whether the source was an original document, a book or article, or a fellow student.

Plagiarism can take a variety of forms:

1. Copying sections from one or more books or articles without acknowledgement of the source(s). Note the phrase 'one or more'. It is still plagiarism if you reproduce sections from several sources rather than one, in a 'cut and paste' approach
2. Excessive dependence upon one or a limited number of sources is plagiarism if the sources are inadequately referenced, even if the exact wording used by the original author(s) has been modified.
3. Collusion with other students. Students should be aware of the distinction between 'collaboration' and 'collusion'. Some assignments encourage or require students to collaborate with fellow students and submit joint work. The majority, however, assess individual work, and do not permit collusion. Students should never submit joint work unless it is clearly required by the module's written documentation, and in such cases students should always seek clarification from their tutors as to the level of collaboration that is acceptable.

You should ensure that your work (whether paper-based or on computer disk) is not made available to other students. Failure to secure work adequately can mean that you may be implicated in an accusation of plagiarism.

You are expected to present your own words, your own analysis and your own argument. It is acceptable to use the work of others to support arguments and analysis, and tutors will be able to inform you as to what constitutes good practice and to give help with subjects such as referencing and the provision of footnotes. If you are in any doubt about what constitutes good practice rather than plagiarism, you must consult your tutors for advice.

It is not acceptable to submit the same piece of work for different assessments or modules, nor may you re-use work originally submitted at another institution for which credit has already been obtained. This constitutes 'double counting'. You may legitimately draw on the same body of material for more than one assignment, but it is never acceptable to submit the same work. If in any doubt about acceptable practice, you should consult your tutors for advice before submission.

Students should be in no doubt that plagiarism is CHEATING, and is a very serious offence in higher education. Pleas that a student was not aware of the offence or its consequences, or did not understand what constitutes plagiarism, will not be accepted under any circumstances. Plagiarism will result in a penalty even when it is unintended or unwitting.

The University is concerned that you get proper credit for your work. This means making sure that you are properly assessed in relation to the learning outcomes specified for your modules, and also in relation to other students. Proper assessment is compromised when students engage in unfair practice, in particular when they plagiarize, or otherwise present others' work as their own.

To help prevent this practice, the University subscribes to a Plagiarism Detection Service (PDS). This compares work submitted to it with millions of pages of internet-based material -- including work uploaded to the service by other students at BSU and in other universities. For every module, the University submits to the PDS any work where copying is suspected, and also a random selection of other work.

Penalties for Unfair Practice

Where an accusation of unfair practice has been substantiated to the satisfaction of the Unfair Practice subcommittee, the accusation is said to be established. The subcommittee shall judge the seriousness of the offence and exercise its discretion in applying an appropriate penalty. In determining the appropriate level of penalty to be applied the subcommittee will consider the extent of the unfair practice, the degree of deception involved, whether the student has been subject to a previous accusation of unfair practice, and any admission and explanation by the student of the unfair practice.

The subcommittee will apply a penalty in the following range:

In cases of unwitting plagiarism only, that is when it is agreed that the student cannot reasonably be expected to have realised that plagiarism had occurred:

1. A maximum mark of 40% shall be applied for the assessment item, and a warning letter will be issued.

Where unfair practice which is not unwitting plagiarism is established:

2. Failure in the assessment item, leading to a referral. There will be a maximum mark of 40% for the module on reassessment.
   1. Failure in the module without right of reassessment. There will be a maximum mark of 40% for the module on retake.
   2. Failure in the module without right of assessment. There will be a maximum mark of 40% for the module on retake and it will be noted on transcript.
3. Failure in the assessment item, leading to a referral. There will be a maximum mark of 40% for the module on reassessment, to be counted for degree classification purposes.
   2. Failure in the assessment item, leading to a referral. There will be a maximum mark of 40% for the module on reassessment, to be counted for degree classification purposes and it will be noted on transcript.
4. Failure in the assessment item, leading to a referral. There will be a maximum mark of 0 (zero) for the module on referral, to be counted for degree classification purposes.
5. Failure in the module without right of reassessment. There will be a maximum mark of 0 (zero) applied, to be counted for degree classification purposes. Students will be able to take an additional module as a part-time student at their own expense in order to redeem credit, but the mark of 0 (zero) to remain.
6. Failure in the module without right of reassessment. There will be a maximum mark of 0 (zero) applied, to be counted for degree classification purposes. There will be no right to redeem credit. Under this penalty, the student will be unable to achieve their intended course outcome, but may be entitled to a lesser award (e.g. Ordinary Degree, DipHE, CertHE).
7. Failure in programme of study. There will be no right to redeem credit or progress. Students will be entitled only to the appropriate exit award for the amount of credit earned before failure (e.g. Ordinary Degree, DipHE, Cert HE).
8. Failure in programme of study. There will be no right to redeem credit or progress. No award of any kind will be made.

In cases 2.b and 3.a - 8 above above, a note will be placed on the student's academic record that an accusation of unfair practice was established, and this will appear on any transcript the University is asked to produce for job references, entry to other higher education institutions etc.

Students should note that where evidence becomes available subsequent to the recommendation of the Examination Board, a case may be reopened at any time.

Students are advised to take a particular note of the provisions of this section. Plagiarism in particular has increased in recent years, partly due to the accessibility of information on the Internet. Students should not imagine that cases of Unfair Practice will not be detected. Every case of Unfair Practice, however minor the scale of the case, is taken very seriously by the University and the above procedures will be applied in all cases.