Academic misconduct includes plagiarism, collusion, contract cheating, and cheating on exams. Plagiarism involves using someone else's work without credit. Collusion is collaborating on individual work or submitting another's work as your own. Contract cheating uses work purchased from third parties. Cheating on exams uses unauthorized materials or assistance. Penalties for academic misconduct range from failing the assignment to expulsion and are based on the severity and number of offenses.

1. Academic
Misconduct
____________
What is it and how to
avoid it

2. Definition of Academic misconduct
The IGI Dictionary (no date) defines academic misconduct as:
‘Any deceitful behavior or misconduct by someone affiliated with an educational
institution to gain academic credit’
Examples of deceitful behaviour include plagiarism, collusion, contract cheating, as well as
cheating on exams.
What is Academic Dishonesty | IGI Global (no date). Available at: https://www.igi-
global.com/dictionary/cheating/223 (Accessed: 23 September 2022).

3. Glossary of
terms
Plagiarism: Using somebody else’s work without referencing
or giving credit to the author/creator.
Collusion: Working together with other students on an
assignment that is supposed to be individual or submitting
coursework that has been written by another student as your
own work.
Contract cheating: Submitting coursework that has been
purchased from a third party as your own work.
Cheating on exams: Using materials, notes, and textbooks that
have not been approved by your lecturer during an exam.

4. The consequences for Academic
Misconduct can be very serious, including
having an assignment or the whole
module capped at 40, failing the class,
suspension or, in serious cases, expulsion.

5. Plagiarism
Plagiarism occurs when a student passes off somebody else’s idea or work as their own by
not crediting the source.
To avoid committing plagiarism, every assignment that has a written/research component
should be referenced. In CCT College, the approved referencing style is Harvard.
Students should always reference all the sources used for their assignments; however,
there is no need to reference facts that are considered common knowledge, meaning, that
they are widely known either by the general public or by somebody researching a
particular subject area.
Please note that, even if you include references, you are expected to paraphrase the
original text. Direct quotes should be used very sparingly and only when their use is
justified, for example in the instance of definitions.

6. Collusion
Collusion happens when multiple people contribute to a piece of work that is meant to be assessed individually.
The most common forms or collusion are:
• Working with somebody else on a task that you were instructed to complete by yourself
• Copying someone else's work
• Allowing someone else to copy your work
• Sharing the answers to a test with a classmate.
Collusion is a serious offence that will result in an accusation of academic misconduct for all the students involved!
Collusion can also happen in the context of group work. This form of collusion is harder to identify because it can
easily be mistaken for collaboration.

7. Collusion (continued)
When students are asked to work in a group and submit individual pieces of work they may get confused between
collaboration and collusion. While collaboration is strongly encouraged, collusion should be avoided at all costs!
Examples of collaboration in a group project:
• Approaching the assessment question together as a group and agreeing on the division of work.
• Dividing the tasks equally among the group members. Each student should concentrate on their assigned task.
Examples of collusion in a group project:
• Working in pairs away from the rest of the group. Once the group has discussed the division of work, each member
must work on their part of the project on their own.
• Relying on other group members to do the work and taking credit for it. If students are unclear about what the
distribution of tasks should be, they should raise the issue with their group and/or the lecturer.

8. Contract Cheating
Contract cheating is the practice of purchasing assignments or dissertations from a third
party (essay mills) and submitting them as your own.
Essay mills exploit the stress and worries that all students experience and lure them into
cheating by offering to write their assignments in exchange for a fee. However, not only is
the quality of the essay provided by essay mills usually very poor, but these services are
very expensive, and they encourage deeply unethical behaviour in students.
More importantly, students using these services will be guilty of academic misconduct,
which carries very serious penalties, up to and including expulsion.

9. Cheating During Exams
Cheating during examinations means breaking the rules established by the College and
detailed by your lecturer.
Examples of cheating include:
Communicating with other people (other than the invigilators) during the exams.
Giving or accepting assistance by any person who is not an exam invigilator.
Using textbooks, notes, or any other not preapproved material during the examination.
Taking an exam on somebody else’s behalf or having somebody take the exam on your
behalf.
Attempting to acquire examination materials in advance.
General breaches of the exam rules and guidelines.

10. Penalties
The following are the penalties detailed in the 2022 CCT Academic Misconduct Policy.
Penalty for Minor Academic Misconduct, first incident
The learner is given a zero mark in the assessment that has proved to have resulted from academic misconduct. The
result for any repeat assessment in that element of that assessment shall be capped at 40%. If the learner does not
resubmit the element within the prescribed timeframe, he/she will receive a fail result for the entire piece of
coursework. The learner is required to complete a workshop on good academic practice, provided by the CCT Library
Service before the result is issued. A record of the offence will be held internally. Any subsequent incident of academic
misconduct is considered major misconduct.
Penalty for Major Academic Misconduct, first incident
The learner is given a zero mark for all assessment elements of the module (coursework and examination). The learner
shall be registered for a second sitting on the module and his/her results arising from this sitting shall be capped by a
pass result. The learner is required to complete a workshop on good academic practice, provided by the CCT Library
Service before the result is issued. A record of the offence is placed on the learner's file and shall be removed on
programme completion should this be the only case of major academic misconduct committed.

11. Penalties
Penalty for Major Academic Misconduct, second incident
The learner is suspended from the programme until the next semester in which there is an opportunity to retake all
modules for that semester. The learner shall be registered for a second sitting on all modules and his/her results arising
from these sittings shall be capped at a pass result. A permanent record of the offence is placed on the learner's file.
Penalty for Major Academic Misconduct, third incident
The learner is expelled from the College and shall not be permitted to re-enrol for a five-year period (pending outcome
of a re-entry admissions meeting between the learner, the programme leader, and Head of Admissions). A permanent
record of the offence is placed on the learner's file.
CCT College Dublin (2022) Academic Misconduct Policy. Available at: http://www.cct.ie/wp-
content/uploads/CCTP511-Academic-Misconduct-Policy-V2.2.pdf (Accessed: 26/09/2022)