A test or exam is intended to assess the knowledge, insight or skills of students. Cheating or fraud is any action or negligence on the part of a student that precludes such an accurate assessment, as stated in the student charter [8]. A student should thus deliver only his own original work, without cheating, falsifying results, free-riding, or committing plagiarism. All are forms of fraud, or in more general terms, academic misconduct. When academic misconduct is detected, it will be reported to the Examination Board, which will investigate and determine whether sanctions will be applied. As there may be various views on academic misconduct in general, and plagiarism in particular, we elaborate on these below.
Academic (mis)conduct
Academic misconduct is more general than cheating or fraud, and an important part of the code of conduct of the University of Twente concerns academic misconduct [1]. A general definition of academic misconduct could be “any action or attempted action that may result in creating an unfair academic advantage for oneself or an unfair academic advantage or disadvantage for any other member or members of the academic community” [2]. Academic misconduct is a serious offence, which can have dire consequences for a student who commits it. This can range from declaring a test or report invalid, to a permanent termination of university enrolment [3]. Academic misconduct include violations of scientific integrity (most notably fabrication or falsification of results and plagiarism) [4][5][6], and fraud (most notably free-riding, plagiarism, and cheating) [7][8]. As stated in [3]: “Students are expected to apply the standards of scientific integrity to their work. Standards of scientific integrity are described in the European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity and the Netherlands Code of Conduct for Research Integrity”.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism may be one of the most difficult elements to comprehend. A definition could be “using someone else's work without proper referencing and thereby violating the intellectual property rights of that other person.” Plagiarism prevents an accurate assessment, and is therefore a form of fraud. Especially for students, when writing reports, plagiarism is often unintentionally committed. This includes sources, such as scientific papers, online webpages, personal communications, and reports from fellow students, not being properly referenced when text is copied, ideas, figures or code are reused, etc. A more elaborate list can be found in [8]. Most of the fraud cases reported to the Examination Board are due to (suspicion) of plagiarism. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance to be aware of what constitutes plagiarism, and what not. For example, there are clear boundaries between incorrect paraphrasing and writing in your own words. How to paraphrase correctly is well described here: https://gsi.berkeley.edu/gsi-guide-contents/academic-misconductintro/plagiarism/art-of-paraphrasing/. Some other examples, but in a somewhat unstructured format, are given in [10]. Unfortunately, it is not easy to find a comprehensive source that is both clear and consistent for all aspects of plagiarism. Therefore, the Examination Board of the Electrical Engineering and Embedded Systems programme follows the guidelines as listed in [2] and [9].
Use of AI tools like ChatGPT
Students that use AI without the explicit consent of the instructor and acknowledgement of the tool in an appendix are considered to have committed fraud. The student must therefore always declare the use of any AI tools and generative AI tools for completing an assignment. Importantly, when no AI tools have been used, this should also be declared. The rules on the use of AI in education at the University of Twente can be found here: https://www.utwente.nl/en/learning-teaching/Expertise/aiin-education/use-of-ai-in-education-at-the-university-of-twente.pdf
If examiners suspect student from having used Generative AI in an improper way, the following procedure can be followed before reporting the case to the Examination Board [10]:
- If an examiner suspects misuse of Generative AI, the examiner consults fellow teacher(s).
- If the suspicions holds, the student will be invited for a supplementary oral exam (The exam should be documented as a regular oral exam) on the submitted work. If necessary, an additional assignment can be offered.
- If the student shows insufficient insight in the submitted work, the examiner reports to the suspicion to the examination board.
Other forms of academic misconduct
Without trying to be complete (for a more complete list see [8]), other forms of academic misconduct we encountered are:
- Free-riding: not or hardly contributing to a group assignment;
- Cheating: a form of academic misconduct whereby students apply dishonest means, methods or behaviour to obtain an unlawful benefit or advantage;
- Alteration of university documents;
- Complicity in any form of academic misconduct. An example is consciously allowing others to use your answers.
- Not complying to the instructions or the rules of order during a written exam.
For teachers: how to check for plagiarism and code similarity
Check all submissions using tools such as:
- The built-in plagiarism checker in Canvas (an option you can check when you create an assignment)
- Turnitin (https://www.utwente.nl/en/educational-systems/about-theapplications/plagiarism-check/)
- MOSS for programming code (http://theory.stanford.edu/~aiken/moss/)
Results of plagiarism or AI scanners are indicative. Before drawing conclusions, a manual verification of the outcome of such scanners with the student’s submission is required.
For teachers: What to do if you suspect fraud?
The examination board keeps a register on students regarding fraud. Therefore, also mild cases should be reported, even if no punishment is deemed necessary by the teacher (for example, when the fraud was committed due to exceptional and understandable personal circumstances). The formal procedure can be found in "Rules and Guidelines" appendix 3 in version 2024-2025 [3], but a sufficient summary is:
- Collect all relevant facts:
- Names and student numbers of the students involved.
- Copy of the exams, assignments, plagiarism reports, etc.
- Communications from/with students, time stamps, etc.
- Provide a clear description of the suspicion.
- Ask the students to explain your findings. If the suspicion holds:
- Inform students that grading is suspended and the examination board will investigate;
- Send the important material to examinationboard-eemcs@utwente.nl;
- The Examination board will hear teachers and students;
- The Examination boards informs students and teachers about penalties if violations are found.
As long as the investigation is pending, students are only suspected of misconduct. They make take part in the organisation of the course until the opposite is communicated.
- Finally, for the students it will be a stressful situation. Please tell them they can contact the Study Advisers for counsel.
Sources & relevant links:
[1] University Code of Conduct: https://www.utwente.nl/en/organisation/about/integrity/codes-ofconduct/
[2] Berkeley GSI Guide on Academic Misconduct: https://gsi.berkeley.edu/gsi-guidecontents/academic-misconduct-intro/
[3] EEMCS Rules & Guidelines: https://www.utwente.nl/en/eemcs/education/rules-guidelines/rg/ [4] University Scientific Integrity: https://www.utwente.nl/en/organisation/about/integrity/scientificintegrity/
[4] Netherlands Code of Conduct for Research Integrity:
https://www.utwente.nl/en/organisation/about/integrity/scientific-integrity/downloads/netherlands-code-of-conduct-for-research-integrity-2018-uk.pdf
[5] European Code of Conduct for Scientific Integrity: https://allea.org/wpcontent/uploads/2023/06/European-Code-of-Conduct-Revised-Edition-2023.pdf
[6] EEMCS Fraud and Free-Riding: https://www.utwente.nl/en/eemcs/education/examinationboard/fraud/
[7] Student Charter: https://www.utwente.nl/en/ces/sacc/regulations/charter/
[8] Harvard Guide to Using Sources: https://usingsources.fas.harvard.edu/
[9] Plagiarism in Academic Research and Education: https://www.utwente.nl/en/organisation/about/integrity/scientific-integrity/downloads/plagiarismin-academic-research-and-education.pdf
[10] Raad van State 26 juli 2023, ECLI:NL:RVS:2023:2874