Academic Integrity & Misconduct | Student Hub

Academic Integrity is the commitment to, and demonstration of, honest and moral behaviour in an academic setting.

Academic integrity is at the heart of our community and reflects a shared set of principles which include honesty, trust, diligence, fairness, and respect. As a City student, you are expected to uphold academic integrity and good academic practice at all times, by demonstrating behaviour that is honest and ethical in all of your academic work and conducting all aspects of your academic life in a professional manner.

This involves:

taking responsibility for your own work.
fully acknowledging the work of others wherever it has contributed to your own.
supporting others in their own efforts to behave with academic integrity.
following the requirements of the University Policies and Regulations.

Through your work and approach to learning you are expected to demonstrate your development as an independent learner, researcher, and critical thinker, this also means that we expect you not to use Large Language Models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT or other Artificial Intelligence (AI) Bots to generate work unless you have been explicitly told that you may or must do so.

If your Module Leader has made clear that you may use LLM/AI sources in your assessed work, then you should acknowledge, describe, and reference its use as instructed. Always check with the Module Leader if you are unclear on what has been authorised.

Using LLMs and AI Bots to gain an unfair advantage by misrepresenting its work as your own is Academic Misconduct and can have serious consequences.

City’s Guidelines on the use of Generative AI tools (LLMs) can be found on the Student Hub here: Using generative artificial intelligence (AI) for learning

How we define Academic Misconduct

At City, we define academic misconduct as ‘any action that produces or seeks to produce an improper advantage for you in relation to your assessment(s) or deliberately and unnecessarily disadvantages other students’.

Broadly speaking, this is any action which gains, attempts to gain, or assists others in gaining or attempting to gain unfair academic advantage and undermine academic integrity. It includes, but it is not limited to plagiarism, collusion and contract cheating:

Plagiarism: using another person’s or LLM’s (such as ChatGPT) ideas, words, data, or other material produced by them without acknowledgement
Collusion: working with others and using the ideas or words of this joint work, in part or whole, and passing it off as your own individual efforts, or, where one student has authorised another to use their work, in part or whole, and to submit it as their own
Contract Cheating: happens when a third party completes work for a student who then submits it as their own. 'Third parties' include web-based companies or auction sites (essay mills), sharing websites (including essay banks) or an individual such as a lecturer, colleague, friend or relative.

Academic Misconduct can be committed intentionally or accidentally, so please make sure you read and follow the guidance carefully.

City actively pursues all cases of suspected academic misconduct.

City Students’ Union (SU) have worked with the University, including academic staff from across all Schools, to produce a short video which explains academic integrity, the consequences of academic misconduct and how to avoid misconduct such as plagiarism, collusion and cheating.

Watch the SU Video and view the full SU Academic Integrity and Misconduct Campaign.

How we manage Academic Misconduct

City’s Academic Integrity and Misconduct Policy and Guidance sets out the process which is triggered if we suspect that you have not upheld these principles and have committed Academic Misconduct.

We will manage and consider cases of alleged Academic Misconduct in accordance with the Senate Regulations*: Assessment Regulations (Senate Regulation 19). The regulations are designed to ensure that students suspected of Academic Misconduct are provided with an independent and transparent system that is both efficient and fair.

This system safeguards the integrity of our awards as well as the interests of the majority of students who work hard for their award through their own efforts.

You can also find more information about the measures we are took to help you succeed in your studies in 2020/21 here: Mitigating the Impacts of Covid-19 on your Studies in 2020/21

Avoiding Academic Misconduct:

Avoiding Academic Misconduct means upholding your Academic Integrity. This means conducting all aspects of your academic life in a professional manner. It involves:

taking responsibility for your own work
respecting the rights of other scholars, fully acknowledging the work of others wherever it has contributed to your own to avoid plagiarism
ensuring that your own work is reported honestly
supporting others in their own efforts to behave with academic integrity
avoiding actions which seek to give you an unfair advantage over others
following the requirements of the University Assessment Regulations (Senate Regulation 19).

You can find more information about the support available to you during your studies and how to avoid academic misconduct on the CityReady and Academic Skills Moodle page.

Types of Academic Misconduct

Contract Cheating

Contract cheating is one of the most serious forms of academic misconduct.

It is defined by the University and the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) as ‘a form of cheating where a student submits work to a for assessment, where they have used one or more of a range of services provided by a third party. Such input is not permitted. The contract with the student can include payment or other favours, but this is not always the case’.

'Services' may include essays or other types of assignments, conducting research, impersonation in exams, translation into English and other forms of unfair assistance for completing assessed work.
'Third parties' include web-based companies or auction sites (Essay Mills), sharing websites (including essay banks), or an individual such as a lecturer, colleague, friend or relative, or Large Language Models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT or other Artificial Intelligence (AI) Bots.
'Input' means that the third party contributes to the work of the student, such that there is reasonable doubt as to whose work the assessment represents.

LLMs and AI Bots, such as chatbots like ChatGPT, can generate responses to quite complex questions and these technologies are developing rapidly. Use of Chatbots or other AI applications, even if they are freely available, is a form of contract cheating because you are instructing a third party to complete the work for you.

Please note, some assessment tasks may be designed to incorporate using such tools as part of the assessment. Providing you are following exactly what has been requested by your School this is acceptable and will not be considered contract cheating. Your school will make clear if you can use artificial intelligence as part of an assessment process.

What are Essay Mills?

Essay Mills are businesses that allow customers to commission an original piece of writing on a particular topic so that they may commit academic fraud. Essay Mills make supposed promises about the standard of work that is commissioned and charge money per page/number of words. These sites may also offer ‘plagiarism checkers’, which may not be as reliable as claimed.

How might I be targeted by Essay Mills?

Essay Mills try to profit from the anxiety students may face because of the pandemic. They rely on exploitation and aggressive marketing and may reach out to you in a number of different ways including:

Reaching students at the right time such as at the middle and end of their terms. They target students with advertising and discounts via email or pop-up ads to order an assignment “just in time”.
Shopping around: Essay Mills have also started crafting entire networks of potential essay sites to give students the sense that they are shopping for the “best match” when really there is one master essay business at the core.
Offering a “professional” and personalised experience. including posting university logos on their websites without permission to appear official.
Following up with perseverance using your contact information to relentlessly contact you via email, text and social media at key points in the academic year.

What do I do if I am targeted?

Essay Mills will often disguise themselves as ‘proofreading’, ‘tutorial’ and ‘academic support’ services. They may target you via email, text, pop-up ads and social media. If you receive this marketing you must:

Delete it immediately
Do not use click though links
Do not offer any personal information or contact details

Academic support services, including study tips, proofreading and tutorials are all offered in- house by City. Useful links and contacts on how to access our services, can be found in the ‘Support available for me’ section below.

Could I be blackmailed by Essay Mills?

Yes. The moment someone starts threatening you in an attempt to get a demand met or financial gain, that’s blackmail and it is a very serious crime. Essay Mills demand payment and have been known to blackmail people who use the service or who start to use the service but change their mind. If you have used an Essay Mill and find yourself being blackmailed, you should:

not pay any money
stop all contact
keep all the evidence
seek help (report it to the Police, contact Victim Support on 0808 16 89 111)
talk to someone you trust (for example the Students’ Union or someone in your School such as your Module Leader or your Personal Tutor)

Am I likely to get caught if I Contract Cheat?

Yes. Universities have developed several strategies to combat this type of academic misconduct including using anti-plagiarism software such as Turnitin and accessing large databases of known assignments sold to students by Essay Mills which we have access to and can check your work against.

What happens if I am found guilty of using Essay Mills or Contract Cheating?

The consequences of contract cheating are very serious. Contract Cheating and the use of Essay Mills is defined by the University as Severe Academic Misconduct.

Where there is no hard evidence of contract cheating, but it has been demonstrated that there are good reasons to believe that the work is not your own, it may be deemed appropriate for the investigating staff or the Academic Misconduct Panel to expect you to demonstrate that the work is your own original work.

This may be involve but is not limited to an Academic Integrity Viva. An Academic Integrity Viva will involve the investigating staff asking for draft copies of the work and/or asking a series of questions about the content of the submitted work.

If you are found to have committed contract cheating and/or have been using Essay Mills, you are likely to be referred to a Disciplinary Panel as an outcome of the academic misconduct process.

The outcome is often expulsion from the University as it includes an element of deception/fraud.

How to avoid contract cheating

The Students’ Union website offers information on Academic integrity and contract cheating: the pitfalls of paying someone to do your studies for you.

With the increased response to COVID-19 there has been a notable spike in aggressive contract cheating marketing. To stay aware of what this is and how to avoid it, please familiarise yourself with the definition of contract cheating from the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) by reading our Academic Integrity and Misconduct Policy and Guidance.

Collusion

Collusion involves working together with other students on a piece of work that will be submitted for individual assessment.

This includes via digital channels such as text and email as well as via online platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram etc. (including the sharing of screenshots and photographs).

This is not permitted and can result in an accusation of academic misconduct for all the students involved

How to avoid collusion

The Students' Union offers useful general advice, guidance and support including information on ‘Collaboration vs Collusion’.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is defined as use of intellectual material produced by another person without acknowledging its source, for example:

Wholesale copying of passages from works of others without acknowledgment.
Use of the views, opinions, or insights of another without acknowledgment.
Submitting an assignment prepared by another student as your own

Where there is no hard evidence of plagiarism, but it has been demonstrated that there are good reasons to believe that the work is not your own, it may be deemed appropriate for the investigating staff or the Academic Misconduct Panel to expect you to demonstrate that the work is your own original work.

Self-Plagiarism

It is possible to plagiarise yourself by re-using work you have previously submitted* without acknowledgement.

If you do re-use work from a previous assignment, this should not normally be more than a short quotation, as the same work cannot be submitted for different assignments.

*This does not include any re-submissions of work for the same assignment which have been approved by your lecturer/tutor.

Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Generative AI is a broad label that's used to describe any type of artificial intelligence (AI) that can be used to create new text, images, video, audio, code or synthetic data.

One of the tools that has risen to prominence recently is ChatGPT by OpenAI which uses a chatbot interface for users to engage with the system; however, there are other tools available, including those embedded in search engines and computer coding editors.

Like other universities, City is exploring the opportunities and challenges presented by generative AI. Whilst we will not prohibit the use of generative AI, it is important that AI is not used to falsely pass off academic work generated by AI as a student’s own work.

If your module leader has given you instructions on the use of AI for a particular assessment, you should follow these. In the absence of any such specific instructions, the key point is that when you hand in work for an assessment, you are stating that it is your own original work.

The purpose of any assessment is to measure what you have learnt and understood from the course being assessed. It is not possible to assess your understanding if you plagiarise, copy and paste text, use AI, paraphrasing software or essay mills.

Our guidance for students is outlined on the Student Hub: Using generative artificial intelligence (AI) for learning

Essay Mills

The Skills and Post-16 Education Bill has become law. Through this act, the Government has passed changes that will transform higher education, including criminalising Essay Mills.

As you may know, Essay Mills are online platforms that facilitate contract cheating. Contract cheating happens when someone else completes work for a student (in full or in part) which is passed off by the student as their own work.

Essay mills are now illegal entities, and you should not engage with or respond to their advertising.

It is no longer a moral question; you will be entangling yourself with an illegal activity and you will be providing your personal information (name, phone number, email address) to people offering a service that is now against the law.

To find out more about how City define ‘Contract Cheating’ and what ‘Essay Mills’ are, please see our Academic Integrity and Misconduct Student Hub Page.

What does this mean in terms of the law in England?

A person who provides or arranges to provide a relevant service to students commits an offence: It is now a criminal offence to provide, or arrange for another person to provide, contract cheating services to students taking a qualification at a University or Higher Education Institution in England. A person guilty of an offence under this section is liable on summary conviction to a fine.
A person who advertises a relevant service to students commits an offence: ‘it is now an offence for a person to advertise any service or individual that is offering a cheating service. A person guilty of an offence under this section is liable on summary conviction to a fine.

What does this mean for me as a student?

In order to comply with City Policy and Regulations, students should not use any material provided as a result of an Essay Mills service in completing all or part of the assignment. This is deemed by City University to be ‘severe academic misconduct’.

While it is not a criminal offense to make use of a contract cheating service, this is deemed by City University to be ‘severe academic misconduct’. The consequences of contract cheating are very serious. Making use of contract cheating services can lead to disciplinary action and expulsion from the University.

What do I do if I am targeted?

Essay Mills will often disguise themselves as ‘proofreading’, ‘tutorial’ and ‘academic support’ services. They may target you via email, text, pop-up ads and social media.

If you receive this marketing you must:

Delete it immediately
Do not use click though links
Do not offer any personal information or contact details

And if you need any support throughout your assessments and studies, please also remember that staff in your School and in our Student Support Services are here for you.

Plagiarism and TurnItIn Checks

Please be aware that TurnItIn is a multi-institutional platform. This means that any assessment uploaded to TurnItIn will be stored in one repository regardless of who uploaded it and which Institution it was uploaded from.

Uploading your work to TurnItIn via another institution log in or via another City student or a student from another University will not prevent a plagiarism match once you submit your final assessment.

TurnItIn will match the final submission to the one submitted previously, and an academic misconduct investigation will be instigated. In order to avoid an investigation and a possible sanction being applied to your work, please do not upload your assessment to TurnItIn via any log in, unless explicit permission to do so has been given to you by your School.

If you are unclear or have any questions, please speak with your personal tutor first.

For more definitions of types of Academic Misconduct please see Appendix 1 of our Academic Integrity and Misconduct Guidance.

Useful resources

Find lots of helpful tips and information for moving to studying online from the Academic Learning Support Team.
Find further information about study skills and revision.
Library Services have created some guidance for citing and referencing your work correctly, which you can access via their website.

The Students' Union offers useful general advice, guidance and support. The Union Advice service is independent from the University and they can:

Explain the academic misconduct regulations and process.
Advise you on responding to the allegations.
Advise on how to put together a statement to respond to the allegations.
Accompany you to meetings or panels with your School.
Provide ongoing advice throughout the process.

If you need any further support throughout your assessments and studies, please also remember that staff in your School and in our Student Support Services are here for you.