Academic Misconduct Policy
Academic Misconduct and Penalties In order for the integrity of reported academic achievements of students to be upheld, Kaplan takes a serious and interested view of occurrences of academic misconduct. Over and above cheating during the examinations, academic misconduct refers to any form of dishonesty committed by a student in relation to summative assessment. It includes the following offences:   Plagiarism In essence, plagiarism is the theft of someone else’s ideas and work. Copying work or written text from a student, the Internet, or any document without giving due credit to the source of the information is plagiarism regardless of whether a student copies verbatim or rephrases the idea.  Paraphrasing the information taken from sources without referencing is insufficient. In the preparation of work submitted to meet module requirements, whether a draft or a final version of a paper or project, students must take great care to distinguish their own original work from ideas, language, and information derived from other sources. Sources include published primary and secondary materials, electronic media, and information and opinions gathered directly from other people or self.   Self-plagiarism Submitting the same assignment for more than one class without significantly rewriting the assignment and/or demonstrating sufficient further development of the intellectual ideas expressed therein and without first receiving instructor permission constitutes self-plagiarism. In cases where previous assignments are allowed to be submitted for another class, it is the responsibility of the student to enhance the assignment with additional research such that it is a sufficiently new piece of work. Findings of plagiarism will remain on a student’s record permanently.   Plagiarism is a serious offence and may result in the following sanctions: 1st Offence – No Academic Offence will be recorded Student will receive notification letter that plagiarism has been committed. Student should study the Writing & Referencing guides and online resources made available for them.   2nd Offence – Warning Letter The student is required to attend a Writing and Referencing Session (WRS). The student will be allowed to resubmit the paper after appropriate intervention. Re-submission paper marks will be capped at Pass grade. Re-module is required, if the student failed to attend the WRS.   3rd Offence – Failure of the module in which the action occurred The student is required to re-module.   4th Offence – Termination of enrolment For Student’s Pass holders, ICA will be notified to terminate the Student’s Pass.   Collusion Students must assume that collaboration in the completion of written assignments is prohibited unless explicitly permitted by the instructor. Students must acknowledge any collaboration and its extent in all submitted assignments. Students are subject to disciplinary action if they: submit as their own work a paper purchased from a term paper company, an individual or multiple individuals or download from the Internet submit an assignment that was partially or wholly completed by another individual or other individuals assist another student wherein the other student intends to commit any act of academic dishonesty. This offence would include, but is not limited to, providing an assignment to another student to submit as his or her own work or allowing another student to copy answers to any test, examination, or assignment.   Collusion is a serious offence and may result in the following sanctions: 1st Offence Failure in the assessment item in which the offence occurred and student is required to re-module.   2nd Offence Kaplan in Singapore will issue a written statement to notify the student that his or her enrolment has been terminated for violation of the academic policy; i.e. the student will be expelled from Kaplan, with notification to the ICA for Student’s Pass holders.   Examination Misconduct Examination misconduct refers to the breaching of Kaplan Singapore’s regulations during the Examination. Examples of examination misconduct are listed as follows:  Cheating Communicating with or copying from any other student during examination except in so far as the examination regulations may specifically permit this, e.g. group assessments.  Communicating during an examination with any person other than a properly authorised invigilator or another authorised member of staff.  Possession of any written, printed materials or electronically stored information during examination unless expressly permitted by the examination or programme regulations. Falsification The falsification of data. The presentation of data in laboratory reports, projects or other forms of assessment based on experimental or other work falsely purported to have been carried out by the student or obtained by unfair means. The falsification of references, including the invention of references and/or false claims.  The falsification of any information with a view to gaining unfair academic advantage. Personation  Personation refers to the assumption by one person of the identity of another person with intent to deceive or to gain unfair advantage. It may exist where:  One person assumes the identity of a student, with the intention of gaining unfair advantage for that student.  The student is knowingly and willingly impersonated by another with the intention of gaining unfair advantage for himself/herself. Ghosting including Contract Cheating  Ghosting exists where student submits as their own, work which has been produced in whole or part by another person on their behalf, e.g. the use of a ‘ghost writing’ service or similar. This is also often referred to as ‘contract cheating’ and covers the purchase of services from on-line essay writing sites.  A student will also be guilty of academic misconduct if he/she deliberately makes available or seeks to make available material to another student (of this university or elsewhere) whether in exchange for financial gain or otherwise with the intention that the material is to be used by the other student to commit academic misconduct. Any other form of examination misconduct not identified in the above examples. Examination misconduct cases are reported through Examination Incident Reports by Examination Invigilators or emails by final assessment markers to Exam Office for investigation and warning letter preparation.  Examination misconduct is a serious offence and may result in the following sanctions: 1st Offence Failure in the assessment item in which the offence occurred and student is required to re-module; or Suspension/Expulsion for serious academic misconduct determined by Examination Board, such as impersonation of another student.   2nd Offence Kaplan will issue a written statement to notify the student that his or her enrolment has been terminated for violation of the academic policy; i.e. the student will be expelled from Kaplan, with notification to the ICA for student pass holders. The appeal procedure will apply if student wishes to appeal on the penalty or determination. Findings of academic misconduct will remain on a student’s record permanently. Appeal on penalty or determination The appeal procedure will apply if student wishes to appeal on the penalty or determination. Findings of academic misconduct will remain on a student’s record permanently. University Partner Programmes Penalties for university partner programmes on academic misconduct offences will be in accordance to the university partners’ respective policies.