Student academic conduct

How to improve your academic skills

Learning how to develop good academic practices will not only help you to build your confidence and study more effectively, but it can also support your success at and beyond university.

Explore the academic skills and information skills support on the Keele University Library Training webpages, which provide guidance on how to find, read, and use sources in your work, plan and write assignments, and manage your references to ensure good academic conduct.

You can access academic and study skills support through:

• Online resources
• Workshops
• One-to-One Academic Skills Appointments
• Weekly academic skills drop-in sessions in the Campus Library (no appointment required)

If you are an International student, you can make an appointment to discuss your work with one the tutors in the Language Centre. Appointments can be booked online by clicking this link here, in person at the Language Centre office in CBB0.001, or by contacting the Language Centre administrators (enl@keele.ac.uk or telephone 01782 (7) 33103).

At the meeting, the tutor will go over the work with you and try to determine the nature of your problem.  This may often include one or more of the following:  unfamiliarity with academic writing conventions, inability to identify relevant information, or   linguistic weaknesses that inhibit appropriate paraphrasing.   Follow-up sessions will be scheduled on a one-to-one basis in order to inform, instruct and enable you to work through the difficulties you may have.

Explore this CiteThemRight module to learn the Basics of Referencing, including guidance on plagiarism and how to avoid plagiarising in your assignments.

Explore this study guide on referencing and paraphrasing to learn how to use source materials in your assignments to ensure good academic conduct.

It is important that you understand how Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools work and how you can use them safely and ethically whilst also supporting your learning.  This is very important as it is academic misconduct to use generative AI tools in an assessment to present work as your own, without proper attribution, or where explicitly prohibited.   For more information please read the Study Guide:  Using Generative AI Effectively  for your Learning.

The document Proofreading - A Guide for Students can be downloaded by clicking the link. If you decide that you would like someone to proofread your work or you wish to use a proofreading company it is very important that you read this guidance. Failure to follow this guidance, if you have your work proofread, could result in you being found guilty of academic misconduct due to you having unpermitted assistance.

Academic misconduct is any action or attempted action which may result in you gaining an unfair academic advantage in an assessment. As stated in the Code of Practice on Student Academic Misconduct academic misconduct includes, but is not limited, to the following:

1. Plagiarism - you copy words or ideas from another person and present those words/ideas as your own in an assessment without properly acknowledging and citing the source(s).
2. Self-plagiarism – you submit the same or almost identical work for more than one assessment without proper acknowledgement. (N.B. You will not be guilty of self-plagiarism if you are repeating a module and are given the same assignment).
3. Collusion - where you prepare a piece of work with at least one other student, including work used for a piece of authorised collaborative group-work, and you present the work in whole or in part for assessment as if it were our own work.
4. Contract cheating- the commissioning and/or submission of work to be assessed which is not your own work and presenting it as if it were. Contract cheating occurs when you obtain work for assessment that has been written, either in full or in part, by another person, where input from another person is not allowed. Money does not have to be exchanged in order for work to be the product of contract cheating.
5. Giving another student a copy of all or part of your own work so that they can use it in the submission of an assignment.
6. Writing part of, or all, of another student’s assignment.
7. The falsification of data or sources.
8. Falsification of official documents or signatures, where these are used for academic benefit.
9. Attempting to manipulate an assessment to avoid academic misconduct being found.
10. Research misconduct as defined by the Research Misconduct Procedure.
11. Allowing someone else to write or make material changes to your work. Further details are in Section 6 of the Code of Practice.
12. Having work translated from another language by another person or by using a translation service or software.
13. Translating work written by someone else in another language and submitting it as your own work without properly acknowledging and citing the source(s).
14. Gaining or trying to gain access to any assessment details, e.g. examination paper, before the release of the assessment details;
15. Possession of unauthorised material and/or electronic devices in an examination or class test;
16. Communicating or attempting to communicate with someone else, apart from an invigilator, during an examination or class test;
17. Copying, or attempting to copy another student’s answers during an examination or class test;
18. Continuing to write (or continuing to perform whatever task is being examined) after the end of the examination or class test;
19. Allowing another person to impersonate yourself or impersonating another person in an examination, test or hearing.

The most common type of academic misconduct is plagiarism. For an interactive guide to plagiarism, please use the Studywrite: Plagiarism module which can be accessed here.

Once you know how to acknowledge the sources you use in your writing for a module, you then write in your own words and present your work honestly to the University for assessment, you will not have a problem with plagiarism or collusion. But you should be aware of the University regulations so that you can be sure to avoid a problem.

For the University’s definition on what constitutes minor and major offences of plagiarism and collusion please refer to Annex A of the Code of Practice on Student Academic Misconduct which can be found .

You should ensure that you are fully aware of the examination regulations and procedures otherwise you may find that you are accused of academic misconduct.  Information on the examination procedures can be found here

The University Policy on the Use of Calculators in Examinations can be accessed by clicking here. 

The Examinations Code of Practice can be accessed by clicking here.

Each School has an Academic Conduct Officer, and one or more Deputy Academic Conduct Officers, whose job it is to investigate cases of possible plagiarism or collusion or similar misconduct.  Academic Conduct Officers have the task of interpreting the regulations and making a decision in each case. 

If someone marking your work suspects some form of academic misconduct such as plagiarism they will pass it to the School Academic Conduct Officer who will investigate.  The Academic Conduct Officer or marker may use “plagiarism detection software” (e.g. Turnitin) that compares text with the Web, with electronic journals and books, and with other students' work from Keele and elsewhere. If there is a case to answer, the Academic Conduct Officer will write to you to invite you to an interview to discuss the problem, at a specific date and time. The marker will probably be present and notes will be kept. You have the right to be accompanied by a member of staff, a current student, a member of the ASK (Advice and Support at Keele) team, or an elected officer of the Keele University Students' Union or Keele Postgraduate Association, and to be represented by such a person in your absence. The University has the discretion to accept other supporters where this is deemed necessary. If you want to present information by way of explanation or mitigation, you must send it to the Academic Conduct Officer two days before the date set for an interview. The letter from the Academic Conduct Officer will explain the details. If you receive such a letter you should get advice from Advice & Support at Keele (ASK) in the Students’ Union.

If the marker or Academic Conduct Officer suspect that you have not written the work yourself, you will be invited to an interview where you will be asked to demonstrate that you understand the content of the work and show how you wrote it. Academic Conduct Officers can only make decision on first and second offences of plagiarism or collusion and apply a penalty. All other offences will be referred to the Academic Misconduct Committee (please see the section on the Academic Misconduct Committee). The fixed penalties are listed below in the section on penalties. The Academic Conduct Officer can require a student found guilty to undertake some instruction in how to avoid plagiarism.

First minor offences of plagiarism or collusion are dealt with as mistakes due to poor understanding of academic writing. As “unacceptable work” it is not accepted and must be resubmitted as soon as possible with the problems fixed. This constitutes a first offence in the tariff, and is recorded centrally.

A second offence  of plagiarism or collusion is one where a penalty under these regulations has already been applied and recorded before the submission date of the work in question. All offences are recorded centrally. The Academic Conduct Officer will keep the details of the case. Both central and Academic Conduct Officer records remain until the end of a student’s study at Keele, or longer if a School has advised the University that a professional body would require it. If the Academic Conduct Officer decision on a case is that no offence was committed, no record is kept.

After an Academic Conduct Officer has made a decision, you can appeal against it but only on grounds of procedural irregularity or of exceptional circumstances.  Details of the appeal process can be found here.

All third and subsequent offences of plagiarism or collusion are referred by the Academic Conduct Officer to the University Academic Misconduct Committee, which meets regularly. An Academic Conduct Officer may also elect to refer any case to the Committee, for example particularly serious offences.

When it meets, the Academic Misconduct Committee consists of a senior academic member of staff as Chair, a member of academic staff from the Faculty in which the alleged offence has taken place but without prior involvement in the case, and a member of academic staff from another Faculty.  The Committee will consider the case and will then make a decision as to whether the case is proven and what the penalty will be.

The Academic Misconduct Committee deals with the following types of cases:

• All allegations of academic misconduct in examinations or class tests;
• All third and subsequent offences of alleged plagiarism;
• Alleged contract cheating;
• Falsification of data or sources;
• Falsification of official document or signatures where these are submitted for academic benefit;
• Major ethics offences;
• First or second offences where the penalty is disproportionate to the fixed penalty that can be given by the Academic Conduct Officer;
• Appeals against decisions made by Academic Conduct Officers.

You will be invited for interview with the Committee and sent a copy of all the paperwork the Panel will be considering. The School representative (usually the Academic Conduct Officer) or invigilator presents the case and you will then be interviewed. You have the right to be accompanied by a member of staff, a current student, a member of the ASK (Advice and Support at Keele) team, or an elected officer of the Keele University Students' Union or Keele Postgraduate Association, and to be represented by such a person in your absence. The University has the discretion to accept other supporters where this is deemed necessary. You are strongly advised that it would be in your best interests to seek the advice and representation of Advice & Support at Keele (ASK) in the Students’ Union.  The Committee will then make a decision as to whether the case is proven and decide what the penalty will be (please see the section titled What are the penalties for academic misconduct?).

If you are a student studying at an overseas collaborative college, you will not be required to attend Keele in person.  Videoconferencing with the Keele University Academic Misconduct Committee will be arranged.

After you have received formal notification of the Committee's decision, you can appeal against it but only on grounds of procedural irregularity or of exceptional circumstances.  Details of the appeal process can be found here.

It is the University’s responsibility (Academic Conduct Officer or the Academic Misconduct Committee) to prove an allegation of academic misconduct. When deciding if you have committed academic misconduct, the University has to be confident, on the basis of the available evidence, that it is ‘more likely than not’ that misconduct has occurred. This is called proof on ‘the balance of probabilities’. The University will assess the probabilities on the understanding that the more serious the allegation, the stronger the evidence must be before the University concludes that the allegation is established on the balance of probability.

If you are registered on a programme of study that is subject to Regulation B.5: Fitness to Practise, any alleged or proven academic misconduct will be disclosed without prejudice to the Head of School so that any implications regarding fitness to practise may be considered. 

The following table lists the recommended penalties that will be given by either the Academic Conduct Officer or the Academic Misconduct Committee for proven offences. Academic Misconduct Officers are only permitted to issue penalties 1-6. If the Academic Conduct Officer decides the case warrants a lesser (e.g. due to procedural irregularity) or more serious penalty (e.g. suspected contract cheating) then the case must be referred to the Academic Misconduct Committee for consideration.

The Committee can impose any of the penalties set out in the table but is not restricted to these and can impose another penalty provided this is appropriate and proportionate. The Committee will consider the standard penalty and will decide if it is appropriate taking into account the following:

• The academic level of the student;
• Extent of the plagiarism (minor/major);
• Previous academic misconduct history of the student;
• Exceptional circumstances; (The Committee will normally only take extenuating circumstance into account if appropriate supporting evidence has been provided. Where the Committee agree that the exceptional circumstances disclosed by a student are relevant, the penalty may be varied but the offence will remain on the student’s record.)
• Any procedural irregularities;
• Evidence of any intention to deceive;
• Nature of the work.

In practice, this means that the given penalty can be less or more severe, at the discretion of the Committee.

If you require advice and support, please contact Advice and Support at Keele (ASK) in the Students' Union:

If you have any questions about the academic misconduct process, please contact the Student Appeals, Complaints and Conduct Team.