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Academic Integrity: Home

“Academic integrity is the commitment to and demonstration of honest and moral behaviour in an academic setting” (National Academic Integrity Network, 2021, p.10).

Maintaining academic integrity is essential in fostering trust and fairness within educational environments. However, when individuals engage in behaviours that breach these principles, it constitutes academic misconduct.

According to the National Academic Integrity Network (2021), academic misconduct involves any attempt to

“seek unfair advantage in relation to academic activity or which facilitates others to gain an unfair advantage, or to profit from the sharing or selling of your own or others’ work without permission.”

Such actions compromise the integrity of academic achievements and can have serious consequences for all involved.

 
  • Plagiarism: Representing the ideas or work (e.g., written text, computer code, artwork) of another as one’s own or improperly referencing original authors.
  • Collusion: Collusion is the undisclosed collaboration of two or more people on an assignment or task, which is supposed to be completed individually.
  • Contract Cheating: Contract cheating  involves buying assignments intended for submission in fulfilment of any course or academic program requirement.
  • Unauthorised Use of AI: Whether AI is permitted to be used in an assignment is determined by each of your lecturers. Unauthorised use of AI is any use of AI in your course work that your lecturer hasn't explicitly told you is permitted, including use of Gen AI tools.
  • Cheating:  Cheating involves the use of unauthorised resources, including sources not permitted by the course instructor, or tools such as calculators, artificial intelligence, smart watches, phones, or other students’ work. 
  • Advertising or selling cheating services (contract cheating): Advertising the provision, or selling, assignments to learners where this has not been authorised by the provider. 
  • Assisting in Academic Dishonesty: Helping another student cheat, sharing your work, or collaborating without permission.
  • Altering or Misrepresenting Documents: Dishonestly changing, creating, or submitting official college documents.
  • Impersonation: Completing any work or exam for another student, or having someone else do so, without permission.
  • Falsifying Academic Material: Falsifying academic material- Altering, fabricating, forging, or submitting: any course-related materials, including laboratory reports, notes, or any forms of data.
  • Self-Plagiarism: Re-submitting academic material (in whole or in part) that has been previously submitted by the same student without prior and expressed consent of the instructor.
  • Unauthorised Sharing of CCT Materials: Sharing college documents or assessments with others, including on file-sharing sites, without permission.

For more information on the College's Policies, please read the CCT Academic Misconduct Policy listed under section 5  of the Quality Assurance manual.

  Quality Assurance Manual  

 

 

AKNOWLEDGEMENT: I Acknowledge the use of Grammarly for the purpose of enhancing the clarity and sentence flow of this text.

Since generative artificial intelligence (AI) is being used more and more in academic research, students may not be aware that their work may lose its academic integrity due to a lack of clear standards on how to utilise these technologies. Therefore, it is important to be clear about how AI can be used ethically in academic work. 

Below, you will find a set of  guidelines that will help you ensure that you work is Academically sound.

  • Review Assignment Guidelines: Before using an AI tool, look at the guidelines for the use of AI listed in the assignment brief. The use of AI may be allowed, restricted to certain functions or forbidden,  depending on the nature of the assignment. If you can't find a mention of the acceptable use of AI in the assignment brief, please ask your lecturer.
  • Be transparent on your AI Use: If you use an AI tool, be transparent about it. Include a clear statement on your cover page acknowledging the specific tool used and a brief explanation of its purpose (e.g., “I acknowledge the use of [enter name of the AI tool you used] for the purpose of [provide a brief explanation of how you used the tool”].
  • Remember to cite AI-Generated Content: If you use AI to generate content, such as formulas or code snippets, for example, you should always include a citation in your reference list. You can find information on how to reference platforms with and without direct URLs, on the Harvard Referencing section of this website.
  • Perform a critical Evaluation of AI Output: AI tools are capable of generating content; however, they are not currently capable of analysing or critically evaluating it. To ensure the accuracy and depth of your work, you should always do the following:

    • Cross-reference with Scholarly Sources: Always compare AI suggestions with established academic sources. This verification process ensures the reliability of the information used.

    • Incorporate Your Insights: Go beyond the AI output. While AI tools excel at specific tasks, they are unable to match human critical thinking and analytical skills. By adding your own critical analysis and insights, you demonstrate a deeper understanding of the subject matter. 

  • Avoid committing Plagiarism: AI-generated content can sometimes include inaccurate or fake references. It may also create text that includes somebody's work without crediting the author. For this reason, it is essential to verify all the sources suggested by the AI tool to avoid unintentional plagiarism.

By adhering to these principles, you can effectively use AI tools to enhance your academic journey while maintaining the highest standards of academic integrity.