Academic integrity explained
What is Academic Integrity?
Promoting academic honesty
Academic integrity means being honest in academic work and taking responsibility for learning the conventions of scholarship.
In taking an academic integrity approach, La Trobe University promotes academic honesty and teaches the conventions of scholarship. Scholarship involves research which builds on the work of others and requires appropriate acknowledgment of this work.
If you are dishonest and cheat you will be penalised. You also need to learn how to acknowledge the source of the evidence you use in your work; this means learning how to reference properly.
Examples
First example
A first year student submitted an essay which he had copied from another student enrolled in the same unit.
The lecturer recognised that the student had copied from someone else and the student received zero for the essay. As a consequence he failed the unit.
Second example
(La Trobe University also demonstrates commitment to academic integrity by teaching students how to properly acknowledge and refer to other people’s work. Referencing is necessary because when we discuss knowledge at university we refer to research to provide evidence for our understandings).
A second year student submitted a piece of writing early in the semester. The writing had a number of sentences which the student had cut and pasted from different sources. There was no acknowledgment of these copied sentences in the essay, but there was a reference list at the end of the essay.
The lecturer talked to the student and found out that the student had only just entered La Trobe University and had received first year credits for studies elsewhere. The lecturer showed the student how to acknowledge the quotes and explained that cutting and pasting without acknowledgment was unacceptable. The student was able to resubmit the essay.
