- Assessment Policy
- Complaints and Appeals Policy - International Students
- Course Progress Policy - International Students
- Critical Incidence Policy
- Deferment & Suspension or Cancellation Policy
- Education Agents Policy
- Entry Requirements and Selection Policy - International Students
- Fees & Charges and Refund Policy - International Students
- Health & Wellbeing and Safety Policy
- Industry Engagement Policy
- Informing and Protecting Learners Policy
- Marketing Policy - International Students
- Notice of Unsatisfactory Course Progress - Risk Intervention
- Overseas Student Transfer Policy
- Plagiarism and Academic Misconduct Policy
- Recognition of Prior Learning and Credit Transfer Policy
- Student Support Services Policy - International Students
- Training and Assessment Strategies Policy
- Validation Policy
- Volume of Learning Policy
INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this policy is to maintain the integrity of the assessments and provide a consistent approach in dealing with plagiarism and student misconduct issues in the academic works.The policy applies to all types of student misconduct including general misconduct, academic misconduct and administrative misconduct.
POLICY
Plagiarism: Plagiarism occurs when a student tries to pass off another person’s work or ideas as their own. Plagiarism includes copying of work from internet, books, other student’s work or any other published or unpublished source without appropriate citation and acknowledgement. Students commit plagiarism if they do not acknowledge the source of a direct quote, or a specific piece of writing that they have paraphrased, or even if they describe an idea or concept that they have heard or read somewhere without a reference or acknowledgement.
Examples of plagiarism include;
• Direct copying of paragraphs, sentences, a single sentence or significant parts of a sentence;
• Direct copying of paragraphs, sentences, a single sentence or significant parts of a sentence with an end reference but without quotation marks around the copied text;
• Copying ideas, concepts, research results, computer codes, statistical tables, designs, images, sounds or text or any combination of these;
• Paraphrasing, summarising or simply rearranging another person’s words, ideas, etc. without changing the basic structure and/or meaning of the text;
• Offering an idea or interpretation that is not one’s own without identifying whose idea or interpretation it is;
o A ‘cut and paste’ of statements from multiple sources;
o Presenting as independent, work done in collaboration with others;
o Copying or adapting another student’s original work into a submitted assessment item
Enabling plagiarism contributes to plagiarism and therefore will be treated as a form of plagiarism by IIFS. Enabling plagiarism means allowing or otherwise assisting another student to copy or otherwise plagiarise work by, for example, allowing access to a draft or completed assignment or other work.
Collusion: Collusion occurs when a student collaborates with others to complete the work but presents the same work as their own.
Misconduct: Misconduct is an act or omission committed by a student on college property or involves the use of IIFS resources including computer resources, or otherwise involves the student’s relationship with IIFS.
Academic Misconduct
The following conduct may be treated as Academic Misconduct;
• Any act or omission by a student which attempts to circumvent or pervert IIFS’s assessment process
• Cheating in an examination or test including speaking or communicating with other candidates, bringing unauthorised material into the examination room including a mechanical or electronic device, or consulting any person or materials outside the confines of the examination room without permission to do so, reading or attempting to read other students’ answers, leaving examination or test answer papers exposed to other student’s view.
• Plagiarism
• Collusion in the preparation of a response to a piece of assessment
• Tampering with examination or assessment materials
POLICY
• IIFS highly values academic honesty and integrity and places a great emphasis on ethical behaviour of its students.
• Academic misconduct by students in examinations or in other forms of assessment is unacceptable.
• IIFS will investigate and deal with incidents of misconduct among its student community in a consistent manner, affording natural justice and applying penalties which are appropriate, fair and just.
• IIFS treats plagiarism as cheating. Cheating and plagiarism are serious offence and IIFS will impose severe penalties on students who cheat and plagiarise.
• All the academic staff must inform the students about plagiarism policy and penalties arising from plagiarism.
• All the academic staff have the responsibility to maintain integrity and fairness of the assessments and try to minimise the instances of plagiarism.
• Any staff member reporting plagiarism must also produce evidences of plagiarism to support the allegation.
• In the first instance when plagiarism is suspected, staff members should first determine if it is intentional or unintentional. Appropriate academic penalty must be applied to unintentional plagiarism. Where it is found that a student has plagiarised with an intention to cheat, the student must be reported for plagiarism.
• Collusion will also be considered as cheating.
• Any student lending his/her work to another student to copy will be considered a party to plagiarism and treated with academic penalty
• Plagiarism offence may have an impact on student visa conditions, and the student, and IIFS will exercise utmost care and diligence in determining plagiarism cases with a focus on student welfare and wellbeing.
IIFS Responsibilities
It is the responsibility of IIFS to:
• Make this policy and procedure available to the staff and students.
• Provide processes for students to appeal decisions arising from plagiarism IIFS Training Staff is responsible to:
• Provide information to students about referencing requirements that are relevant to their course;
• Provide examples to students of appropriate referencing techniques and practice;
• Ensure that students understand the difference between cooperative learning, groupwork and collusion;
• Be vigilant in the detection of plagiarism;
• Be aware of, and respect, the practices of other cultures / cultural backgrounds;
• Provide transparent and consistent feedback to students about issues relating to referencing
Student Responsibilities
It is the responsibility of the students to
• Understand and comply with the legislation, policy and procedures of IIFS concerning plagiarism and seek help if unclear about their requirements;
• Be familiar with, and apply, the referencing practices acceptable to IIFS;
• Ensure that all sources of information are appropriately acknowledged; and
• Take all reasonable precautions to ensure work cannot be copied
Reporting of Plagiarism
• Where the assessor identifies minor lapses in referencing and/or use of source, whether by text matching, similar software or other means, the assessor shall treat the incident as an assessment matter, and may reduce the overall mark or grade for the assessment task, and/or may permit re-submission.
• Where plagiarism is suspected, the assessor shall document the reasons and evidence for this suspicion and refer the matter to the Academic Manager.
• The Academic Manager, after assessing the evidence of the case, takes one of the following actions:
o If there is sufficient evidence to warrant it, request the student to attend a formal hearing, the purpose of which shall be to investigate and discuss the matter with the student as a means of deciding what further action, if any, should be taken.
o If the evidence appears to indicate a very serious breach of discipline, refer the matter to the Academic Manager for appropriate action.
Penalties for Plagiarism
If the student is found guilty of the charge of plagiarism, the Academic Manager shall determine the appropriate penalty taking into account:
• The extent of the plagiarism (e.g. which could range from minor lapses in referencing to copying substantial parts of published work including work from the Internet, or another person’s work);
• The seriousness of the plagiarism (e.g. theft of another person’s work; paying another
person to do the assessment task)
• Whether it is a repeat offence
• Any mitigating circumstances in the case
The Academic Manager may impose one or more of the following penalties;
• Any proven plagiarism case will result in an immediate “Not Competent” (NC) result in the respective unit and the student will need to re-enrol in the unit. No re-assessments will be allowed.
• Student will be placed on the Plagiarism register which will be available to all academic staff members.
• Repeated plagiarism offences may result in cancellation of student’s enrolment