Academic Misconduct Benchmarking Research Project: Part 2

Building on the first part of the Academic Misconduct Benchmarking Research Project (AMBeR) which revealed huge variation in the penalties available to UK higher education institutions for student plagiarism, this second stage of the project attempted to investigate the reality of how penalties are applied in terms of the type and number of cases which are recorded. The study revealed that around half of the cases investigated by universities attracted relatively minor assessment level penalties however around 10% of penalties imposed were of the type which could severely impact upon a student’s academic career, including expulsion from the institution.