We regularly review our policies and regulations to ensure we provide you with relevant and up-to-date guidance and support.
We have recently made several changes to the 6H ‘Academic Offences Policy and Procedure for Taught Awards’. Please read the following information.
At the start of the academic year, the following changes were made to the policy:
- ‘Major’ and ‘minor’ offences were renamed as ‘Academic Offence’ and ‘Severe Academic Offence’
- The 30% similarity parameter (from the Turnitin similarity reports) used to decide upon the severity of cases was removed, which will now be a matter of the marker’s academic judgement. BU continues to use anonymous marking.
- Detailed guidance is now provided on the process for dealing with cases of students being suspected of purchasing work
- The offence of trying to deceive anti-plagiarism software was included in the policy. This includes, but is not limited to, inserting blank characters into work.
We have recently further updated the policy to include using artificial intelligence software within assignments. Submitting an assessment where artificial intelligence software contributed to the development of (e.g., wrote) all or part of your assessment, now constitutes an academic offence under the Policy and Procedure for Academic Offences (6H).
The changes in the policy were an output of the Academic Integrity Working Group, which included representation from SUBU. Academic offences are taken very seriously at BU and can lead to serious consequences. You can find out more about how to avoid committing an offence on the BU website.
These changes have now taken effect and any academic offences will be dealt with according to the updated policy.
Please contact the Academic Quality team if you would like to discuss how this impacts you in more detail.
