Cheating

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is copying another person's writings or ideas and presenting them as your own. It covers copying from the internet, from books or other published sources, and from friends or other students. Though some examples of plagiarism are very obvious, there are circumstances - for example where students are encouraged to work together but to write up their results separately - where you may need to seek advice about what is and what is not allowed. If you are uncertain, you should ask. For certain pieces of assessed work you will be asked to sign a declaration that the work is your own, or will be asked to list the people with whom you have worked (if this is allowed).

Other forms of Cheating

Cheating also covers more obvious offences such as copying in tests, stealing work from other students (either electronically or in another way), or taking your mobile phone into an examination. Note that you are guilty of cheating if you assist another student to cheat (for example by allowing them to copy your work).

For more advice see the University's page on Academic Integrity.

Both cheating and plagiarism are taken very seriously by the Department. The University rules governing how cases are dealt with are in Regulation 11 of the University Calendar.

Penalties

The Department has decided that every suspected case of cheating or plagiarism will be dealt with strictly according to the regulations, and will be referred to a person in the Department designated by the Chair of Department who will keep records of each case. It is not possible to negotiate with individual lecturers.

The following consequences are non-negotiable:

1) Where a penalty is appropriate this will be exacted according the rules in the University Calendar section 11. In particular, where the Department means to deal with the case itself:

• there will be a formal letter to the student signed by the Chair;
• the student will be asked to formally accept the penalty or to launch a formal appeal;
• the student's Department and the appropriate Board of Examiners will be formally informed of any penalty imposed;
• copies of all such formal letters will be kept in a file in Maths until the student concerned has graduated - they will be destroyed on graduation if there have been no further similar instances.

2) For the purpose of the regulations the Department deems that the wording "the piece of work concerned" in the Regulations means:

• the whole of the assessed component of a module for which the majority of the credit comes from an examination (so cheating on a single homework assignment or class test may mean that the Department sets to zero the marks on the whole assessed component of a module).
• all the work submitted for a single deadline for those modules which are more completely assessed (so that, for example, cheating on any part of an assessment may mean that the Department sets to zero the marks on the whole of that assessment, even if it is broken into several parts.)

You should note that aggravated cases, including second or subsequent cases, will be dealt with by the University, and the penalties in these cases can be much more severe.

Use of AI

The use or not of artificial intelligence for assignments is a fast moving area within the University. For the latest University policies and advice see the subpage on the Academic Integrity Framework pageLink opens in a new window.

In the Mathematics Department module leaders may specify any rules or guidelines on the use of AI for assessed work for their module. But please note that for any assessed work, University AI policy appliesLink opens in a new window, which can be summarised as:

• You cannot use an AI to create content for your work which you present as your own work. This is plagiarism.
• If you use an AI you must set out why, where and how you have done so. This may be done with a clear paragraph in your submission. Please note that specific citation requirements may be given to you as part of any assessment brief, if so then follow those instructions
• Keep a good record of all interactions with any AI that you later use or rely upon for a submission. This may be via screen-grabs, or other recording techniques. Some assignments may have specific instructions around attaching any interactions, if that is the case, follow those instructions.

Crucially if you do use AI then you must be able to show 'intellectual ownership' of the material you submit based on the knowledge you gain from the AI. You can read more about this and the general things to be aware of when using AI for mathematics support on these Statistics Department webpages about academic integrityLink opens in a new window

Remember that by using an AI to support your learning you may be masking gaps in your knowledge or reinforcing misconceptions you have. This will not serve you well when it comes to taking examinations where of course you will not have access to AI. We advise seeking support from your tutor, your supervisor, Teaching Assistants, lecturers, the course resources ahead of using AI as you are much more likely to get a learning experience focused to your real needs and that will help you going forward.