How to refer a case of Academic Misconduct
If the case is a first offence of plagiarism, collusion, or online exam misconduct and the student is an undergraduate non-Honours student:
- Report to the Head of School or nominee
- Provide a completed referral form, a copy of the work concerned, marked up to indicate the problematic area(s), and the sources identified – also marked-up and cross referred to the work
- If you use Turnitin, the report can be included but this is not enough on its own
- Add any relevant correspondence with the student (e.g. if they have emailed you admitting to the misconduct, or have requested an extension)
- Marking of the work should be suspended until the case has been concluded, and the student should be advised of the reason their work is not yet being marked
The matter will be dealt with using the School Interview process.
If the case involves an Honours or postgraduate student, or is a repeat allegation, or if the extent of the misconduct is especially severe:
- Report to the Student Conduct Team using the online form - this is the only format now accepted
- In the online form, attach the work concerned, marked up to indicate the problematic area(s), and the sources identified, also marked up and cross-referred to the work
- If you use Turnitin, the report can be included but this is not enough on its own
- Information on any previous academic misconduct involving the student
- Add any relevant correspondence with the student (e.g. if they have emailed you admitting to the misconduct, or have requested an extension)
- Marking of the work should be suspended until the case has been concluded, and the student should be advised of the reason their work is not yet being marked
More detailed information on referring a case can be found below.
Any case referred to the Student Conduct Team without the required evidence will be returned to the School and if the required information is not provided within four weeks, we will close the case.
The Student Conduct Team will send the full documentation for the case to the student, so please make sure you don’t include any judgements or assumptions about the student or recommendations about the process or penalty.
If misconduct is suspected but evidence in the form of identifiable sources cannot be found, Schools can ‘viva’ the student by holding an exploratory interview with them. This might identify whether the student has used an essay writing service, generative AI, or had other help. Full details on this process can be found here.
Referring a Case - Key Points
- Please fill in every part of the referral form. All of the information is required by the Senate Assessors so that they can judge the impact of their decision as far as possible, and it saves time if the Student Conduct Team don’t need to email Schools for clarification. In the ‘details of allegation’ section please give as much detail as possible. Take particular care with the ‘is a resit or resubmission normally available’ question – we often see mistakes here and this can be problematic if, for example, the Senate Assessors permit a resubmission attempt and later discover none is available.
- All cases must have evidence supplied – either marked up work with identified sources, correspondence with the student, screenshots, etc. Cases without evidence will be returned to Schools and no action can be taken. Note that, for AI misuse cases, the output of AI-checking software is not accepted.
- If you are referring an online exam case relating to multiple questions, please do not submit a separate referral for each question. One referral per exam will suffice.
- If you are unsure whether plagiarism is substantial enough to refer, please email the Turnitin report/marked up work to student-conduct@glasgow.ac.uk for an initial view.
- Referrals should be made as soon as possible after the work is submitted – the Student Conduct Team regularly receives referrals some months after the work was submitted, which causes distress to the students involved and may delay their graduation.
- If the allegation is one where there is the suspicion that the student has not written the work by themselves (e.g. contract cheating, use of artificial intelligence) and so no sources can be identified, we recommend an exploratory interview takes place with the student. There is detail on that process here but please contact the Student Conduct Team if more advice is required. Advise students why the exploratory interview is happening, and take notes. If after the exploratory interview the School remains unconvinced that the student produced the work, refer the case, with the meeting notes, to the Student Conduct Team. The School should not make any final judgement or apply a penalty.
When referring a case to us, you should advise the student you are making the referral and explain what the allegation is about. You should not provide them with the documentation at this stage – the Student Conduct Team will do this. You should also not suggest to the student what the outcome might be, as this can’t be predicted. Any queries about any aspect of the conduct process – either from staff or students - can be emailed to student-conduct@glasgow.ac.uk.
A sample template can be found here.