Monash University Policy Bank

Purpose

• To provide guidance to the faculties to assist them in minimising plagiarism and in managing it in a consistent and equitable manner;
• To manage plagiarism appropriately for the protection of the university’s reputation and standards for current and future students.

Scope

All campuses
All coursework students
Assessments conducted for coursework units and degrees

Policy Statement

1. Monash University is committed to upholding standards of academic integrity and honesty. Plagiarism in any form is unacceptable and will be treated seriously by the university.
2. Students will be advised at the beginning of their course about the plagiarism policy and procedures; and the provisions in University Statute 4.1 - Discipline about cheating.
3. Faculties must adhere to the approved definitions of plagiarism, collusion and cheating.
4. Students and staff of the University have a duty to ensure they gain the necessary academic understanding to minimise incidents of plagiarism and cheating. In this regard, Associate Deans (Teaching) must take all reasonable steps to ensure all course-work students, but particularly commencing students, are: aware of the provisions in the University Statute 4.1 - Discipline about cheating and the policy and procedures covering plagiarism; and educated as necessary in the appropriate skills and knowledge to avoid plagiarism.
5. Faculties will specify a process to ensure as far as possible that work submitted for assessment is the work of the student concerned.
6. A student found to have plagiarised will be provided with the opportunity to respond.
7. A staff member who suspects that plagiarism has occurred must produce evidence (through identifying the source) to support their allegation. The Chief Examiner (or nominee) must decide whether or not they believe that plagiarism was likely to have been intentional or unintentional. If the student is unable to provide a satisfactory explanation of the correspondence between the student’s work and the sources identified by the staff member, the Chief Examiner may infer that plagiarism was done with intention to cheat.
8. If the failure to acknowledge the ideas of others was not intentional, the only offence the student has committed is the academic misdemeanour of failing to reference a source correctly. Academic penalties may be applied.
9. If a Chief Examiner is reasonably satisfied that the plagiarism was, more likely than not, done with the intention to obtain an unfair advantage in assessment, the matter must be reported as suspected cheating pursuant to University Statute 4.1 - Discipline.
10. Collusion (unauthorised collaboration) and the resubmission of work that has already been assessed in another unit, without disclosing that fact, also constitute cheating and will be dealt with under University Statute 4.1 - Discipline.
11. Faculties will take steps to detect plagiarism, which may include the use of electronic plagiarism detection software and other methods to compare work submitted for assessment against various databases, which may include the World Wide Web, electronic reference materials and other students’ work submitted for assessment.
12. A plagiarism register will be maintained, which will record warnings and the outcomes (if any) of an accusation of plagiarism.
13. A student’s involvement in alleged plagiarism will be retained on the plagiarism register while still enrolled or intermitted in any course and academic staff will have access to this information when considering any subsequent allegations of plagiarism.

Supporting procedures

Supporting guidelines

Responsibility for implementation

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education)
Associate Deans (Teaching)
Heads of academic units
Chief Examiners
Faculty Managers
Staff involved in assessment

Status

Key Stakeholders

Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education)
University Solicitor’s Office
President of Academic Board
Deans of Faculties
Associate Deans (Teaching)
Heads of academic units
Chief examiners
Learning Skills Unit
Director Centre for Learning and Teaching (CALT)
University and/or student associations

Approval body

Endorsement body

Definitions

Cheating: Seeking to obtain an unfair advantage in an examination or in other written or practical work required to be submitted or completed for assessment.

Chief Examiner: Person responsible for assessment in a unit.

Collusion: Unauthorised collaboration on assessable work with another person or persons.

Managing faculty: The faculty that is assigned responsibility to coordinate administrative matters for each single or double degree program (including - but not restricted to: admission, enrolment, course advice, academic progress and academic referral).

Plagiarism: To take and use another person’s ideas and or manner of expressing them and to pass them off as one’s own by failing to give appropriate acknowledgement. This includes material from any source, staff, students or the Internet – published and un-published works.

Unit: Any single unit of study in which a student enrols, and in which a grade is recorded.

Working days: Days other than Saturdays, Sundays and university holidays.

Related legislation

Monash University Act 2009

Statute 4.1 - Discipline

Related policies

Assessment in Coursework Programs Policy

Special Consideration Policy

Grading Scale Policy

Codes of Practice for Teaching and Learning Policy

Related documents

Unit Assessment Procedures

Special Consideration Procedures

Grading Scale Procedures

Discipline (Student) - Guidelines (for Monash enrolled students)

Discipline – Students Procedures (for Open Learning Agency of Australia students)

Student Resources

Staff Resources

Date Effective

Review Date

Owner

Author

Content Enquiries

University Policy Use

Version Number: 1.0

Contact: adm-PolicyBank@monash.edu