Every student is expected to understand the rules regarding correct referencing and coursework submissions.
Whenever you submit an assessment, you're agreeing to the following declaration:
"By submitting this assessment, you are confirming that you have read and understood University policy and procedures on academic misconduct, and that you have and produced this assessment in accordance with the requirements of the assessment brief."
See Part 3 Section 10 of our academic regulations for more details on plagiarism.
What is plagiarism?
Plagiarism is where a student presents work for assessment which contains the unacknowledged published or unpublished words, thoughts, judgements, ideas, structures or images of some other person or persons. This includes material sought from electronic sources such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology or other software, and material sourced or contracted from a third party. (Section 10 Academic Regulations, 10.39)
In academic writing a high premium is placed on original thought which uses and builds on the knowledge and ideas of others. You're expected to do your own thinking and will be assigned work by your lecturers in order to analyse the ideas you have read about and to develop your own thoughts in reply to them.
When you conduct research for your own assignments, you'll be relying on the citations and references provided by other authors in order to find material relevant to your topic. In the same way, when you're writing your own work, when you're the author, you'll be responsible for providing your readers with a route back to the sources you used so that they can also follow the progression of ideas. Your work needs to be placed within the context of other related work; if you plagiarise this context will be lost.
Whenever you directly quote, paraphrase, or summarise someone else’s ideas, you are responsible for giving due credit to that person for their work. And by crediting that person, through proper citing and referencing, you will enable your lecturer, and whoever else may read your work, to understand what led you to your conclusions and to see that you have researched both widely and thoroughly.
All students should be aware that plagiarism can occur in various ways. You can find more information below on self-plagiarism, plagiarism using Generative AI tools, and plagiarism-commissioning.
Self-plagiarism is where a student presents for assessment work which that student has previously submitted for assessment as part of the same or another module or course, or at another institution. This is known as self-plagiarism and relates to the principle that a student may not receive credit for the same piece of work more than once unless specifically required to resubmit work as a requirement of re-assessment. (Section 10 Academic Regulations, 10.39)
Self-plagiarism is submitting, in whole or in part, work which has previously been submitted at the University of Westminster or elsewhere, without citing and referencing the earlier work. This includes re-using your own submitted work without citing and referencing. It does not matter whether the work concerned is submitted in different years, for different courses or even for different degrees.
Tips for avoiding self-plagiarism
- Never submit the same assignment twice
- Never use a part of one assignment in another assignment
- If you're looking back at an old assignment for information you need again, make a brief note of the information beforehand and work from that note.
- Do not copy and paste
- Do not try to disguise the duplication by making minor changes
Assignments will almost certainly not require the same material presented in the same way at the same level - you'll need to change the way you use the information:
- Think about what is expected of your answer to the assignment you're doing now
- Select only the information that is relevant and write it in a way that directly answers your new assignment – for example, you may need to:
- synthesise it with material from other sources
- explain or discuss particular aspects in more or less detail
- show deeper levels of analysis or critical thinking write about the topic from a different perspective
- adapt the material to fit your argument
The use of Generative AI (GenAI) systems when completing an assignment is academic misconduct if the use is not clearly cited and referenced in your work. Copying content generated by ChatGPT or other tools without citing and paraphrasing is like copying from anywhere else (ie website or a book) without referencing and paraphrasing.
GenAI tools that can be used to help improve your writing are acceptable, such as Grammarly for Education. Using this tool is acceptable to get advice on how the essay could be improved in relation to grammar, spelling, wordiness, style, punctuation and tone. Indeed, it is possible to use ChatGPT to provide advice on grammar and punctuation and it is acceptable to use ChatGPT to provide ideas for how an assignment (essay, report etc) might best be structured.
However, it's not acceptable to submit a poorly written (but original) essay to ChatGPT and request the AI to re-write it in good, academic English. Presenting the output of tools that write for you as your own work is academic misconduct. The University of Westminster may impose a penalty on the assessments of those found in breach of academic integrity. Part 3 of Section 10 of the University’s Academic Regulations 2023–24 now incorporates the use of GenAI as a form of plagiarism, as well as setting out the procedures relating to academic misconduct and penalties relating to academic misconduct.
The regulations highlight that work presented for an assessment which contains unacknowledged work includes material sought from electronic sources such as Artificial intelligence (AI) technology or other software (Section 10 Academic Regulations, 10.39)
The University expects its students to submit work that is original to them and demonstrates their independent thought, whilst clearly acknowledging all of the sources that they have consulted in compiling their assignment. Plagiarism can be avoided by the accurate use of academic apparatus including quotation marks, the provision of detailed references and a full bibliography.
Quotations from the published or unpublished work of other persons or Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology or other software must always be attributed, both at the appropriate point in the text, and in the bibliography at the end of the piece of work. Extensive quotations, close paraphrasing, copying from the work of another person, including another student, or using the ideas of another person, or Artificial intelligence (AI) technology or other software without proper acknowledgement, may constitute plagiarism.
The use of any machine or third-party human to generate an assignment on behalf of a student is a form of academic misconduct, that not only provides an unfair advantage but inhibits the development of crucial critical thinking skills by that student.
Students should include a paragraph at the end of any assignment that used Generative AI in compiling their submission, explaining which Generative AI was used (including the version where relevant/known), what they used the Generative AI for and how they used it to get the results/final submitted draft of their assignment. Failure to do so is academic misconduct. (Section 10 Academic Regulations, 10.40)
More information and e-learning for students
We advise you to read the guidance below on the acceptable use of Generative AI.
To access the University's free online courses on Generative AI (including an Introduction to Generative AI, AI and Ethics and the AI and the future Workplace), sign in to your Blackboard and click on ‘Generative AI at Westminster’ on your ‘My Courses’ page in Blackboard.
Plagiarism Commissioning, also known as Contract Cheating, is a serious academic offence, where another individual completes an assessment on behalf of a student. It can involve a financial transaction.
A commissioning offence could take the form of:
- a friend, family member or another third party writing whole or part of an assessment for you, without a financial transaction
- hiring a private tutor to write, or give extensive input into your assessment
- paying for whole or part of an assessment via an essay mill
‘Essay Mills’: These are online commercial businesses that offer to complete work on behalf of a student, usually in return for payment. It is common for companies to target students across social media and to market themselves as providing legitimate study support or proof-reading services.
Using Essay Mills is a form of academic misconduct. The latest legislation by the UK Government, ‘Skills and Post-16 Education Bill’ became law, making Essay mills now illegal in the UK. Through this act, the UK Government passed changes to transform higher education, including criminalising Essay Mills.
Essay mills are not trustworthy and have been known to blackmail students. You should not be engaging with or responding to their advertising, if guilty under this criminal offence, you may be liable on summary conviction to a fine. In line with our Academic Integrity Policy (PDF), you should not use any material provided as a result of an Essay Mills service
If you have concerns about a website that has contacted you, then please inform the University and seek guidance from your Personal Tutor. If you have been in contact with an Essay Mill and they are starting to threaten you please speak to your Module Leader, Personal Tutor or the Students' Union who are there to support you.
The University uses Turnitin Software, and your assessors will use their academic judgement to detect potential cases of commissioning. If you submit an assessment that is written by someone else, then you may risk failing the module or even exclusion from your degree.
If your module leader believes your work may have been commissioned, you'll be invited to a Viva meeting. This is an informal meeting where you will be asked questions on your work to ascertain if you are the author. If it is believed you are not the author of the submitted work, then you'll be reported to Academic Standards for investigation and a Panel Hearing will be arranged.
More information can be found in Section 10 of the academic regulations.
We recognise that sometimes it might be helpful to have a third-party proofread your work. However, you must take care that this does not stray into academic misconduct. Therefore, it is important for students to understand what a legitimate proof-reading process looks like.
The Academic Integrity Policy (PDF) explains the University's position on proofreading in full.
This states that a proofreader can:
- identify spelling and typographical errors
- highlight formatting errors or inconsistencies
- identify spelling/grammar/typographical errors in the labelling of diagrams, charts or figures
- identify typographical errors in equations
- draw attention to repeated phrases or omitted words
There are some academic subjects, (such as languages, for example) where it may not be appropriate for a proofreader to make corrections. Therefore, you are strongly advised to speak with your Module Leader and read the Academic Integrity Policy before asking someone to proofread your work.
A proofreader cannot do the following:
- identify poor grammar eg tense use, verb form, sentence structure, word order
- rewrite passages of text to clarify the meaning
- highlight a sentence or paragraph that is overly complex or where the intended meaning is not clear
- identify errors in the referencing system applied
- change any words or figures, except to correct spelling
- check or rewrite calculations, formulae, equations or computer code
- rearrange or reformat passages of text
- contribute any additional material to the original
- redraw, alter or relabel diagrams, charts or figures
- alter argument or logic, where faulty
- implement or alter a referencing system or add to references
- check or correct facts, data calculations, formulae or equations
- correcting errors identified in the reference system applied
- translate text drafted by students, noting that this does not prohibit translation of source material as long as it is properly referenced
If you do want to refer to something you have written elsewhere or even to put in a short quote from your own previous work, you must cite this correctly. See the video below for more information on referencing your work.
Understanding plagiarism - FAQs
There is a particular style and format that you’ll need to use when you reference your work, and this may differ between courses. Check with your Course Leader, Module Leader, or Module Handbook for the correct referencing style when you begin your studies.
Referencing support is provided through Cite Them Right online. To use this, you'll need to log in with your University of Westminster username and password.
Have a look at our Referencing your work page for more details and to download the Referencing Guide.
You’ll need to reference all your sources. This includes academic books and journals, and any information you use from anywhere on the internet.
Whenever you are unsure, it is always best to check or avoid.
Though the University now has guidance in place on the acceptable use of GenAI, we would advise you to check with your Module Leader, Module Handbook, and the Assessment Brief to check if the use of AI is permissible as this may depend on your assessment. If permitted to use in your work, please ensure you are referencing the GenAI used correctly within the body of your work as well as your references list. Failure to do so is academic misconduct.
In line with other higher education institutions, the University employs text-matching software, such as Safe Assign and Turnitin, to help identify potential plagiarism in assignments. The software does not detect plagiarism per se but does highlight text similarities. Academic judgement will still be used to decide whether or not potential plagiarism exists in an assignment.
For more help on this topic, check the avoiding plagiarism tutorial on Blackboard (log-in required).
There are two main types of plagiarism – intentional and unintentional. The easiest to avoid is intentional plagiarism. If you are tempted to ‘borrow’ someone else’s ideas (ie copying whole passages from a book, article, website, or a friend's assignment) without citing the author because you are short on time, stressed, or you do not fully understand the topic you are writing about, simply don’t do it. The consequences of plagiarism are much worse than handing in an assignment late or handing in a piece of work you are not 100% satisfied with.
In many cases, plagiarism is unintentional and caused by a lack of organisation, carelessness, confusion, or a mix of all three. The bad news is that regardless of whether you intended to plagiarise or not you'll still be held responsible for the work you hand in and the consequences will be the same. The good news is that there are two easy steps you can take to avoid unintentionally plagiarising:
- understand what question you are trying to answer and what process you are entering into when you write an assignment and
- use a methodical approach when planning and writing your assignments
If you are struggling with your academic writing, there are a number of ways to receive support from the University. It is important to seek help as early as possible if you are informed there are problems with your referencing:
- Check the avoiding plagiarism tutorial on Blackboard (log-in required)
- Have a look at our referencing your work page for more details and to download the Referencing Guide
- Contact your Personal Tutor to book an appointment (their details can be found on your student record on e:Vision)
- Attend an Academic Skills Workshop
- Sign up to an Academic English module
- If you have a disability or condition that affects your studies, please visit the Disability Learning Support Team page