On 12 September 2013, the AJC found two students guilty of plagiarism in their final assignment, which was submitted last semester in the Social Theory course. Plagiarism is considered a form of academic misconduct, and is a violation of Ashesi University’s standards of academic integrity, regardless of whether the plagiarism is intentional or not.
After deliberating, the AJC came up with the following sanctions for the two students found guilty:
- Both students will receive a failing grade for the Social Theory course
- They will retake the course.
- They will rewrite the assignment. The assignment will not be an edited or corrected version of that which was brought before the AJC, but rather, will be an assignment written afresh, abiding by the same guidelines as the initial assignment. The assignment should be written by 12 October 2013, or by another date agreed on with the lecturer.
- We recommend that they find out when the session(s) on plagiarism in the Expository Writing course or any other course will be taught this academic year, and sit in on the session(s).
The Committee would like students to consider how plagiarism affects you. When you plagiarize you are likely to stifle your academic potential and growth as it weakens your ability to develop opinions and thoughts. Furthermore, when you present other people’s work as your own, your lecturer is unable to assess your progress, which is necessary for providing the appropriate support. At Ashesi we want students to develop critical and analytical thinking skills and plagiarism prevents you from doing so. Remember also that the act of plagiarism undermines and disregards the efforts of people whose knowledge and work we rely on to develop intellectually.
The AJC would especially like to advise students of the following:
- Adhere to the rules on citation to avoid plagiarism.
- Seek assistance from faculty and the regarding proper referencing and citation.
- Communicate with lecturers about any difficulties with assignments.
- Use the writing lab and library for help with written assignments especially research papers.
