I'm wondering how other schools handle cases of plagiarism.

Currently I have on my hand two very serious plagiarism cases where the students took drawings from previous graduated students and try to pass it off as their own. In our case, we're trying to push these two final year students to be kicked out of the school because it's so serious.

We're not talking about copying/cheating in exams, but taking other's works as their final year project (FYP), thesis or graduating dissertation.

normally my sch has some sort of tribunal...whereby the students caught copying would have to attend etc ..and they can even be represented by their respective lawyers... plagiarism is treated very very seriously in my sch at least.. but still, the punishment meted out is stil very dependent on the severity.. ie if one copy pasted a short section from a cliff notes/sparknotes without citing it, the student would be issued a warning or the most, receive a failing grade for that subject.

The question is, can the school kick out the student for plagiarism? Is this spelled out properly as one of the punishment?

This post has been edited by Human Nature: Jan 21 2013, 11:38 AM

yes. it's in the university regulation. i'm pretty sure it's used everywhere else as well, but just a matter of carrying it out.

My alma mater had students take an online test at the start of every academic year to make sure we were all aware of the university's plagiarism policy.

For cases of unintentional plagiarism, any offending work will be awarded the minimum pass mark.

Intentional plagiarism will result in a score of 0.

I knew someone in final year who did just what TS is asking. Basically took results from a submitted piece of work and tried to pass it off as his own for the final year project (which is the only thing we do for a full semester).

Failed the whole course. Only awarded an "Ordinary Degree" which in the UK is a class lower than a Diploma. Some might argue its even more worthless than A-levels, because employers will know you did something bad in uni

EDIT: Have to add, at my uni we're not allowed to repeat final year. So once you're out ... you're out.

This post has been edited by corad: Jan 21 2013, 11:53 AM

do you acknowledge the source?

in an assessment, you need to present the original work and your own work, for the jury to decide how much you've put your work (modifying/changing) in it.

unfortunately Turnitin doesnt work on drawing

From what I understand, the student gets an F. Then there will be a disciplinary hearing (something like that?) to decide on the punishment.

The issue should be viewed from many different perspective.

From the side of the teacher, of course they want their student to be creative and come up with something very new and do not copy any other's work even their seniors.
But in this case, many students might face in dilemma on not knowing how to complete their assignments with their limited experience and knowledge.
By doing the work with creativity, it might not reach what the lecture want and in the end, given a very low score for such a 'creative' work.

In my own opinion, I might as well be on the side of encouraging this plagiarism activity.
When people don't know a thing, they may learn it, by mimic to how those who knew the thing.
We learn from copying, and yet after we've learnt all what the senior does, then only come the time we do our work with creativity and invent something new.

In general, Thomas Edison invented light bulb, are we going to not use this light bulb and invent another new item that will emits light by ourselves? Obviously no.

If small issue like overlooked citations, will get a lot marks cut off.
If more than a few badly cited, min marks awarded especially if whole body of work is not very outstanding.

In the case of passing off others' work as your own, get thrown out of school after disciplinary hearing.

using your example:

you take edison's bulb, present it to the jury. then you take YOUR bulb, present it to the jury. then you show how your bulb is different from edison's.

plagiarism is when:

you take edison's bulb, present it to the jury as YOURS, regardless how many changes you made.

no. but the jury might want to see how much original work have been done above it.

1. Then ASK. You have your coursemates, your professors, the teaching assistants, books, the internet.


2. So what's stopping the rest of the class from also copying ? Why should I spend countless hours reading,practicing and thinking if I can just "borrow" from the seniors ?


3. In reality, the electric bulb was first invented by Joseph Swan. And Mr Edison was not the last person to invent a light bulb either. Today we have florescent tubes & LED lights to choose from. Something we wouldn't have if everyone thinks copying is a-ok.

This post has been edited by corad: Jan 21 2013, 01:42 PM

Well for my uni you will be dragged to a hearing which would consist of the lecturers and dean if its very serious. consequences are usually suspension or being expelled off the school. if its not that serious the student would probably get a fail for the subject and resit it next semester under supervision.

In my uni, the assignment is graded with 0 marks if more than 30% plagiarism is detected with TurnItIn

Shouldn't this matter be resolved within the four walls of your uni rather than bringing this matter to public space asking for opinions? Pity the "accused".

What happens when the top decides NFA and case closed?

If your work still resembles or have the impression from the public that they are refering to the same object, with monetary gains especially, it is plagiarism

Resolved, yes. Discussed, open. The matter is being resolved by the university disciplinary board, where the students have admitted plagiarism.

Discussion about plagiarism is never taboo. Even the university ruling states that the names of the guilty must be published as a deterrent to other students. Plagiarism is the crime of the highest order in academia, keeping it hush hush would not be inline with the gravity of the crime.

Not too sure about plagiarism, but in the case of cheating during exam:

1. misconduct hearing to be held
2. student can be represented/defended
3. decision is made - if he/she found to be guilty, subject involved is to be failed for that semester.

Till now, yet to hear if there's any student getting expelled because of plagiarism. Failing the student-Yes.

No need talk about final year project

95% of the assignment you give will be copied paste work. Unless it individual basic

10% will own self do the assignment, 25% will take from answer those 10% refer and try to do it themselves, the remaining 65% will take the answer and copy blindly. The rajin type will try to modify the answer, but majority will just copy blindly.

That 65% is the worse one