The University of Bath is committed to providing students with the tools to become ethical scholars and researchers. The University expects all its students to commit to, and maintain, high standards of academic honesty and integrity, respecting and identifying others’ ideas and material in the course of all their work.
To ensure current standards of teaching and research provision are maintained, the University has invested in a new, robust referencing and study skills toolkit for students. The new online Academic Integrity Training package will provide critical guidance for students to avoid assessment offences (including plagiarism) and develop the necessary skills to reference appropriately when preparing assignments.
The ethical scholar toolkit, complete with helpful videos and exercises, is designed to provide an engaging method of educating students through all levels of their journey through higher education.
Professor Peter Lambert, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Teaching and Learning) said:
We take plagiarism very seriously as a University. By investing in these resources we are providing all of our students with up-to-date, fit for purpose information and support on academic integrity to help them understand and avoid plagiarism.
The new Academic Integrity Training package provides a comprehensive understanding of good academic practice and a safe space for students to evaluate and develop their knowledge, both before they complete the University of Bath Academic Integrity Initiative Test and throughout the duration of their studies. The package comprises two resources:
Skills for Study – a toolkit that delivers 3 interactive e-learning study skills modules designed to help every student better understand and practice the fundamentals of ethical learning. These are Referencing and Understanding Plagiarism, Critical Thinking, and Reading and Note-making. In each module, students are able to confidentially self-assess their knowledge, work through all or only the relevant content, tag materials to review again in future, and keep a reflective log on their own learning. They are also able to take practice tests throughout their university career.
Cite Them Right is a referencing database available 24/7/365 to help students give proper credit to any source used within their work. An additional Referencing Tutorial for those new to referencing is also available and a certificate of achievement from Palgrave Macmillan may be acquired by successfully completing the tutorial’s built-in assessments.
For new students at all levels of study, whether undergraduate, postgraduate, or doctoral, the new Academic Integrity resources are designed to prepare them to take and satisfactorily pass (85%) the compulsory University of Bath Academic Integrity Initiative Test. Students must take and pass the test before the next progression point in their studies, or as advised by their department. None of the self-diagnostic or module assessments within Skills for Study and Cite Them Right are an alternative to the University of Bath Academic Integrity Test; they are self-test and practice test tools only. Access to required test is via the ‘Academic Integrity Initiative Training and Test (AITT)’ link on Moodle.
For returning students, Skills for Study and Cite Them Right provide refresher guidance and support on how to describe, explain, and apply ethical learning practices – especially referencing and understanding plagiarism – throughout the course of study.
For all students, at all levels, claims of inadvertence or ignorance will not be accepted as a basis for mitigation of a penalty.