Cheating, plagiarism and Turnitin

Cheating is considered a serious offence at the University of Auckland. If academic misconduct is determined, Auckland Law School will impose penalties and may refer the case to the University’s Discipline Committee. Penalties can include fines, suspension or expulsion from the University. See the University’s pages on Academic Integrity.

All confirmed breaches of academic integrity are recorded on the University’s Register of Academic Misconduct. Any records on the Register are declared to the Law Society in respect of any applicant for admission as a barrister and solicitor. 

Plagiarism means using the work of others in preparing an assignment and presenting it as your own without explicitly acknowledging – or referencing – where it came from. Plagiarism can also mean not acknowledging the full extent of reliance on a source. Work can be plagiarised from many sources – including books, articles, the Internet, and other students’ assignments. Plagiarism can also occur unconsciously or inadvertently. Direct copying is definitely plagiarism. Paraphrasing of another’s work without attribution is also plagiarism. Submitting someone else’s unattributed or less than fully attributed work or ideas is not evidence of your own grasp of the material and cannot earn you marks. Plagiarism can also occur in an open-book examination. If you copy from a case or a text it must be acknowledged. 

Note: Plagiarism applies to all levels of work, including theses and dissertations.When you submit a hard copy assignment, you must attach a cover sheet from Canvas. This includes a declaration that the work is completely your own work, and that materials from other sources have been properly acknowledged and referenced. For online-only submission, this declaration is included on the assignment submission page in Canvas. 

Law School subscribes to the Turnitin originality checking service. All assessed work is reviewed against online source material using computerised detection mechanisms. You are required to provide an online version of your work (in Microsoft Word) for computerised review. 

Please read the University’s Student Academic Conduct Statute. This outlines provisions on the penalties for academic misconduct. The University’s compulsory online Academic Integrity Course is designed to help you understand academic integrity requirements, University rules relating to academic conduct, and the consequences of academic misconduct.