What is at stake?

student

Students

Committing plagiarism is the same as dishonesty and fraud. If plagiarism is established, a penalty follows. Account can be taken of a number of factors:

  • The type of assignment
  • The type of course unit
  • The moment in the study path
  • The intentionality
  • The seriousness of the violation

Plagiarism falls under the definition of irregularities in section 12 (articles 152, 153, and 154) of the examination regulations and can result in an appropriate mark being awarded for the assignment or the examination, no marks being awarded for the assignment or the examination, or for the entire examination period, or, in the worst case, that the student is excluded and thus must re-do the year.

In 153 of the examination regulations, the following procedure is set forth:

  1. Notification through a competent person (the examiner or an appointed person)
  2. The impounding of documents; the student can continue his or her activities until the verdict of the examination committee.
  3. Statement by the examiner to the chair of the examination committee; in any case, the chair hears the student (and naturally the examiner also)
  4. The chair verifies – eventually in discussion with the expert designated by the faculty – whether the possible infraction can be qualified as plagiarism and what is the grossness of the infraction
  5. (Possibly advanced) meeting of the examination committee
  6. Verdict of the examination committee

The possible penalties for irregularities that can be imposed by the examination committee (thus not by the individual examiner, although he or she must propose a judgement) are set forth in article 154 of the examination regulations.

  1. An appropriate mark for the assignment or the examination in question
  2. No marks for the assignment or the examination in question
  3. No marks for any of the examinations during the examination period in question
  4. No marks for any of the examinations during the examination period in question and loss of the right to take any more examinations in that academic year (i.e., exclusion). In this last case, the penalty has to be confirmed by the commission on fraud. To this sanction can be added the loss of the right to enrolment in the next or the next two academic years.

To each of the above sanctions can be attached the obligation to participate obligatory in a module of self study or any other training programme concerning plagiarism.

Instructors

Plagiarism is also problematic behaviour for instructors. The Commission on Scientific Integrity has worked out a procedure through which such behaviour can be reported and investigated.