Penalties for Academic Misconduct

The following is taken from the University's Regulations and Procedure for the Investigation of Academic Misconduct.

Academic Board has agreed that the following penalties for academic misconduct should be applied to increase consistency and parity of treatment for similar offences across the University.

SERIOUS ACADEMIC MISCONDUCT

Serious academic misconduct is defined as any case of deliberate, premeditated cheating, (including extensive deliberate plagiarism or collusion) which has either been admitted by a student, or which a panel has judged to be a premeditated attempt to deceive and gain unfair advantage.

FIRST OFFENCE AT UNDERGRADUATE LEVEL:

Restriction of the award the student may ultimately achieve, if successful, to that of the intermediate award which precedes the award for which the student is registered when the offence is committed,

e.g. a student registered for an honours degree will only be able to obtain a degree without honours (a non-classified ordinary degree) and a student registered for an ordinary degree will only be able to obtain a Diploma of Higher Education.

SECOND OFFENCE AT UNDERGRADUATE LEVEL:

Required to withdraw from the University.

FIRST OFFENCE AT POSTGRADUATE LEVEL:

Required to withdraw from the University.

OTHER OFFENCES

Where an offence has been committed but the intention to deceive and thereby gain unfair advantage, has not been established, the penalties will be as follows:

A first offence committed by a student in their first year of study on a University of Wolverhampton award:

Failure of the assessment task in question (i.e.F0). The student will be allowed to re-sit the assessment but the grade will be capped at D5.

A first offence committed by a student not in their first year of study or a second offence committed by any student on a University of Wolverhampton award:

Failure of the module in question (F0)

The student will be permitted to retake the module if he/she has sufficient rights of retrieval in his/her credit envelope but will be restricted to a D5 grade.

A third offence committed by a student on a University of Wolverhampton award:

Exclusion from the University. The student would receive the award to which they were entitled at the time of the exclusion being imposed.

APPEALS

Award Assessment Boards are required to impose these penalties as laid down above unless:

Either

an investigating panel acting on behalf of Academic Board, recommends a different penalty in the light of the evidence presented to it.

Or

an Academic Appeal Panel upholds an appeal against the standard penalty. Such an Appeal Panel may only consider an appeal against a penalty for academic misconduct on the grounds specified in the Regulations and Procedure for Academic Appeals. If the Panel upholds the appeal, it may decide either to impose an alternative penalty or to rule that no penalty should be imposed.