Academic Integrity
Our aim is to embed Academic Integrity into the curriculum. The Centre for Learning, Access and Student Success (CLASS), in partnership with the Centre for Academic Quality and Assurance (CAQA), supports staff with regular workshops, resources, guidance and advice.
Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) Charter
In 2020, the University signed up to the QAA Charter on Academic Integrity. This committed us to the Seven Principles: personal responsibility, community approach, working together, empower staff, autonomy, consistent practice, and empower students.
Workshops & Support for Schools & Staff
CLASS (working with CAQA) provide a range of regular workshops about, for example: Academic Integrity and the QAA Charter; Text Matching Software; Academic Misconduct procedures; Essay Mills; AI Tools such as ChatGPT; and the Contract Cheating Checklist.
Support is offered to staff (School Academic Integrity Officers, Programme and Module Leaders) who wish to develop resources, (re-)design assessment or interpret complex cases of plagiarism. Recent projects have included working with staff and student actors to produce academic integrity videos for students; identifying and sharing authentic and personalised assessment exemplars that reduce opportunities for plagiarism; working with CAQA on disparities in misconduct cases.
London & the South East Academic Integrity Network (LSEAIN)
CLASS represents the university on this informal network of universities for sharing best practice, discuss topical issues and report on interesting developments and events (such as research and conferences).
Recent topics have included the contract cheating checklist, academic integrity champions, the international day of action, assessment design, running vivas fairly and non-text disciplines.
External Academic Integrity Projects
As part of our academic integrity work, colleagues within CLASS have been invited to design and share best practice with organizations such as Turnitin.
The work of Earle Abrahamson* (Learning and Teaching Specialist in CLASS) involves the creation of quickmark sets and repositioning Turnitin as software for learning and not simply a space to submit work. In addition, key projects focus on exploring how first year students understand academic writing, plagiarism and collusion. Through a traffic light system, students receive feedback on what good writing is and how this contributes to grade attainment. This has culminated in the development of top tips for academic writing and feedback practices.
Specific examples of the work can be found here:
Six Ways to Reshape Your Feedback and Increase Student Engagement
Leveraging Higher Education Best Practices in the Secondary Classroom
*In 2015, Earle was honoured with a Turnitin Global Innovation Award for his resourceful approach in using technology to model good academic writing practice for his students.