Colluding

On many occasions, as part of the learning process, you will be instructed to work in groups in programmes of research or in the preparation of projects and similar assignments.

This is collaboration, and is a legitimate academic skill that you have to learn.

However:

• Agreeing to hide someone else's individual input to such collaboration, to secure a higher mark is collusion
• Allowing someone to copy your work, where you know that they intend to submit it as though it were their own, is also collusion
• Both of these leave you and the other student open to a charge of Academic Malpractice*

Where you are asked to work in groups and to collaborate in specified activities, your lecturers will always make clear how your individual input to such joint work is to be assessed and graded. Sometimes, for example, all members of a team may receive the same mark for a joint piece of work, on other occasions team members will receive individual marks, which reflect their individual input. If it is not clear on what basis your work is to be assessed, you should always ask for clarification, before submitting any assignment.

*Academic Malpractice is any activity - intentional or otherwise - that is likely to undermine the integrity essential to scholarship and research. It includes plagiarism, collusion, fabrication or falsification of results, and anything else that could result in unearned or undeserved credit for those committing it.

Information about Academic Malpractice and the procedures for dealing accusations of it is available in the Crucial Guide under Conduct and Discipline of Students.