Academic misconduct policy

• Taking someone else’s work, images or ideas and passing it off as your own. This is called plagiarism.
• Using the computer, either the Internet, or information stored on a hard copy or floppy disk which belongs to someone else, and passing it off as your own.
• Cheating, that is, acting unfairly or dishonestly to gain an advantage.
• Secretly agreeing with another to cheat or deceive. This is known as collusion.

All these are called academic misconduct. If you are discovered or suspected of any of the above, the Institution will investigate and this may result in disciplinary action being taken.

That is what is expected of you whilst you are at IFG

• You will only hand in your own original work for assessment.
• You will show when you have used information provided by someone else by giving the person’s name and where you found the information in your work (or in your portfolio). For example, if you use someone else’s words you will enclose the quote with inverted commas. You will also repeat this information at the end of the piece in a bibliography or references section. Your tutor will give you help with this. You should seek advice and guidance from tutors if you are unsure how to do this properly.
• You will show when you have downloaded information from the Internet.
• You will never use another student’s work as if it was your own.
• You will never use someone else’s artwork, pictures or graphics (including graphs, spreadsheets etc.) as if it they were made by you or let other students use or copy from your work and pass it off as if they had done it themselves.

All cases of suspected academic misconduct will be fully investigated by the Institution.

If proven disciplinary action will be taken. The outcome will depend on the severity of the offence. The member of staff who has looked into what you have done will decide how serious the case is at first and will then consult senior colleagues. The claims against your wrongdoing will be written down so that you know the case you have to answer.

The Institution classes some academic misconduct as gross and deals with it more severely.

The following section gives information on this classification, together with guidance on the actions the Institution will take.

Cases of Academic Misconduct include:

• Copying from books without acknowledgement which has a significant contribution to the overall work
• Limited plagiarism from professional work (not course books).
• Limited copying of other candidates work (hard copy or from a disk), or excessive help within one piece of work
• Limited downloading of information from the Internet or the use of model answers downloaded from the Internet
• In the situation where the assessed work contributes to final grade
• Repeated minor cases

The Institution may take the following action:

• What you have done will be discussed with you in a private tutorial
• Your mark or assessment grade will be reduced or you will be awarded zero depending on how serious what you have done appears to the Institution
• You may not be allowed to take the assessment again
• Limited downloading of information from the Internet or the use of model answers downloaded from the Internet
• You will be given a warning about how you must act in the future

Cases of Gross Misconduct include:

• Extensive copying of textbooks in one piece of work or limited copying in two or more pieces of work which makes a significant contribution to the work/s.
• Extensive plagiarism of professional works (more than 100 words)
• Buying, selling or stealing of work
• Repeated evidence of extensive use of information from the Internet without acknowledgement or using model internet answers
• Using past candidates’ work from previous years.
• Undue help from outside the Institution
• Repeated cases of misconduct

The Institution may take any of the following actions:

• A zero grade in the assessment
• You are not allowed to re-sit the exam or test, or you are not allowed to re-do the piece of assessed work

In all cases, a note will be made on your record of the allegation, the outcome and any penalty you are given. You need to know that this information may be used by the Institution if it is asked to provide a reference for you