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Misconduct

It is important for law students to avoid academic misconduct as we are required to disclose any misconduct to the admitting authority, and it may affect our capacity to practice law.

Academic Misconduct | B reaches | P enalties | Getting Help

ACADEMIC MISCONDUCT

What is academic misconduct?

Academic misconduct is any activity or practice engaged in by a student that breaches explicit guidelines relating to the production of work for assessment, in a manner that compromises or defeats the purpose of that assessment. Students must not engage in academic misconduct.
The specific Law School policy is available here.
The comprehensive University policy is available here.
The STUDYSmarter guide to academic conduct is available here.

What constitutes plagiarism?

Plagiarism is the unattributed use of someone else’s words, creations, ideas and arguments as one’s own. It includes the use of wording that is ‘too close’ to an unattributed source, or extensive paraphrasing.
How to avoid plagiarism:
- DO place quotation marks around the words of others, acknowledge your source in the text or citation, and make sure anyone reading your work could find that source.
- DO NOT copy, in whole or part, the words of someone else and use them as your own — even if they are the unpublished work of another student.
- DO cite the source you are paraphrasing, and attribute the idea to that source. Try to demonstrate your own ideas by developing those of the source.
- DO NOT present the ideas of another person as your own by paraphrasing those ideas.
- DO feel free not to cite a source for common knowledge (e.g. Australia was federated in 1901), even if you look it up in a reference book.
The standards may be relaxed in assessments only if the instructions explicitly state as much.
- e.g. refer to sources from the Reader in-text by last name only, full referencing is not required.
  - Note, this still requires you to reference the ideas and words of others.
This is also true in exams, given time pressure. You still need to cite any sources you refer to, or quote from.
There are 3 preliminary levels of plagiarism:
- Minor
  - Less than 10% of the assessment;
- Moderate
  - Between 10% and 25% of the assessment; and
- Major
  - More than 25% of the assessment.
- To determine the level, the Faculty will consider the intent of the student, whether there has been previous misconduct, their level of study, and any mitigating factors.

What constitutes collusion?

Collusion occurs when two or more students work together and submit the same or similar work for assessment as if it were the independent work of the student submitting it.

What constitutes inappropriate collaboration?

When a lecturer or assessment requires you to complete the work individually and without assistance from another person, you cannot work with another person.
This includes sharing information, dividing up the work between you, using someone else’s work from a previous year, or discussing the assessment with others.
This limitation will usually apply for take-home exams.

BREACHES

Minor BREACH

A breach will be minor where a student’s neglect of specific guidelines or carelessness compromises the purpose of an assessment only to a limited extent.
This won’t include relatively trivial breaches during a student’s first 24 points of study, which reasonably occur as a student becomes familiar with the conventions of the study of law.
A minor breach usually involves minor plagiarism or minor copying of another student’s work.

Moderate breach

A more serious breach may be judged a moderate breach where there is:
- Moderate plagiarism in an assessment;
- Recycling of a piece of assessment from another unit re-submitted in a complete or substantial form;
- Fabricating of date or sources of information in an assessment other than a thesis; and
- Collusion with another student.

Major breach

A breach will be major when there is a serious and substantial breach, including:
- Cheating in exams by:
  - Bringing in unauthorised material;
  - Engaging in, or agreeing to sitting an exam for someone else, or having someone else sit your exam.
  - Reading the answers of other students; and
  - Communicating with others;
- Major plagiarism, particularly in a thesis;
  - Fabricating data or sources of information in a thesis; and
  - Submitting someone else’s work as your own, or writing an assessment for someone else.

PENALTIES

How will the Faculty respond to academic misconduct?

Where a student commits a minor breach in the first 48 points of study of an undergraduate course, they may be dealt with by counselling from the Unit Coordinator.

All other cases will be referred to the Academic Conduct Officer (ACO), Robert Cunningham. The ACO and the Unit Coordinator will interview the student. The student may bring another person along to the interview. If you would like a Blackstone representative to attend with you, please contact the Education Vice President, Chris Burch, at educationvp@blackstone.asn.au

Where the penalty may be more serious than failure of a single unit, the ACA must refer the case to the delegated Head of School, Tracey Atkins, or the Dean, Erika Techera. The Head of School or the Dean will then be required to determine the level of misconduct, and the appropriate penalty under the University policy.

In the most serious cases, the Dean must refer the matter to the Vice-Chancellor, who may bring it before the University Board of Discipline.

The comprehensive University policy on penalties is at Clause 5 here.

Penalties

Minor Breach
- First time
  - Within first 48 points.
    - No grading penalty, required to revise and resubmit or complete similar assessment, academic counselling by Unit Coordinator with referral to other services.
  - After first 48 points + Postgraduate students.
    - Marks deducted according to extent of misconduct, academic counselling by Unit Coordinator.
- Second time
  - Within first 48 points.
    - Marks deducted according to extent of misconduct, academic counselling by Unit Coordinator.
  - After first 48 points + Postgraduate students.
    - Mark of 0 awarded for assessment, academic counselling by Unit Coordinator or Head of School.
- Third time
  - Within first 48 points.
    - Mark of 0 awarded for assessment, academic counselling by Unit Coordinator or Head of School.
  - After first 48 points + Postgraduate students.
    - Mark of 0 for assessment, academic counselling by Dean focusing on likelihood of failing unit with further misconduct.
Moderate Breach
- First time
  - Within first 24 points where no record of misconduct.
    - May be required to revise and resubmit or complete similar assessment, academic counselling by Unit Coordinator.
  - Within first 24 points where record of misconduct.
    - Marks deducted according to extent of misconduct, academic counselling by Unit Coordinator.
  - Within second 24 points where no record of misconduct.
    - Marks deducted according to extent of misconduct, academic counselling by Unit Coordinator.
  - Within second 24 points where record of misconduct.
    - Mark of 0 for assessment, academic counselling by Unit Coordinator.
  - After first 48 points + Postgraduate students.
    - Mark of 0 for assessment, academic counselling by Head of School.
- Second time
  - All students.
    - Award of N-Fail for unit, warning that further misconduct may result in N-fail for all other units enrolled in Faculty, penalties for unsatisfactory course progress, academic counselling by Unit Coordinator or Head of School.
- Third time
  - All students.
    - Award of N-Fail for unit, possible N-Fail for all other units enrolled in Faculty and further penalties for unsatisfactory progress, academic counselling by Head of School or Dean.
Major Breach
- First time
  - All students.
    - Award of N-Fail for unit, possible further penalties for unsatisfactory progress, academic counselling by the Head of School.
- Second time
  - All students.
    - Award of N-Fail for unit and all other units enrolled within Faculty, further penalties for unsatisfactory progress, academic counselling by the Dean.
- Third time
  - All students.
    - Award of N-Fail for unit and all other units enrolled within Faculty, further penalties for unsatisfactory progress, possible referral for exclusion from units or course.

GETTING HELP

FACULTY OF ARTS, BUSINESS, LAW & EDUCATION

Make an appointment to see an Academic Conduct Adviser for advice on ethical scholarship and academic misconduct.
Talk to your tutor, lecturer or supervisor as they will be able to answer questions related to your course or research.

GUILD STUDENT ASSIST

Talk to somebody in the Guild's Student Assist team to get information and help with addressing academic misconduct allegations and other academic concerns or check out their guide on academic misconduct here.

STUDYSMARTER

Come to STUDYSmarter WRITESmart workshops to learn useful techniques to help you study.
Come to (ma+hs)Smart workshops for help with maths and stats topics and (ma+hs)Smart drop-ins to get quick advice from 10am-12pm.
Use STUDYSmarter's GETSmart online resources for information that you can access anytime and anywhere.

UWA INFORMATION SERVICES

Ask a librarian for advice about referencing, locating sources, borrowing, IT support and copyright questions.
Use the study and referencing guides to help you find and reference sources for your subject area.
Go to an Endnote training session and find out how to store and format your references electronically as you write.