In December 2012 the Ashesi Judicial Committee (AJC) ruled against a student for academic dishonesty. The student had copied some of the answers for an assignment from a classmate’s computer. The copied portion accounted for about 50% of the marks for the assignment. During the hearing the student admitted to academic misconduct.
As stated in Ashesi’s student handbook, “Academic dishonesty includes plagiarism, unauthorized exchange of information or use of material during an examination, unauthorized transfer of information or completed work among students, use of the same paper in more than one course, unauthorized collaboration on assignments, and other unethical behavior. Disciplinary action will be taken against perpetrators of academic dishonesty.”
Sanctions:
- The student received a failing grade (E) in the course
The AJC would especially like to advise students of the following:
- Adhere to the examination honour code.
- Communicate with lecturers about any difficulties with assignments.
- Copying, and the resulting minimum sanction of failing a course outright, has much greater repercussions for your academic and ethical path, than bad performance on a single assignment.
