Academic Misconduct Benchmarking Research Project: Part 1

The Range and Spread of Penalties Available for Student Plagiarism among UK Higher Education Institutions

P Tennant

G Rowell

F Duggan

Following concerns expressed by the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education in the UK regarding inconsistencies in penalties applied for cases of student plagiarism in UK universities the Academic Misconduct Benchmarking Research Project (AMBeR) sought to investigate the range and spread of sanctions available to the 168 institutions who took part in the research. The desk research exercise identified 25 different penalties available to institutions but confirmed vast variation both within the sector and within institutions themselves in terms of their use and also highlighted inadequate guidance on how to apply the sanctions available.