Section 07 Plagiarism Policy

The purpose of this document is first to give a basic description of what Plagiarism is, what Excel Christian Counselling disciplinary policy on what will be the necessary steps if a student is first guilty of plagiarism, and what will be the required process if a student continues to make himself/herself guilty of Plagiarism.

The student must also sign this document indicating that they have read and understood and agree to adhere to Excel Christian Counselling policy regarding Plagiarism. The student also agrees to submit themselves to the disciplinary process should they fail to obtain the institution’s policy regarding plagiarism.

Definition of Plagiarism

Plagiarism is where a student takes the academic or intellectual work of someone else and presents it as his/her own in any academic paper (Smith 2008:73).

This can be done in the following ways:

• Copying and pasting an author’s work in your assignment without referencing the author (giving credit to the author’s work).

• Even if a student has referenced the author from where he/she got the information, the student is not allowed to just copy and paste the author’s work, the student must paraphrase the author’s work (put it in their own words) to demonstrate that they understand the material.
• The student will also be guilty of plagiarism if he/she copies and pastes answers as their own for the assessment questions directly from the Excel Christian Counselling’s manuals. The student must always paraphrase (put it in their own words) if they use the manual to answer the questions in their assessments.
• The student can also not make use of chat GPT as it would not be their work or words, but the words and works of an AI. The same principle is true for copying and pasting from an internet source or any electronic document. Anyone can do that, and it does not demonstrate that the student has the necessary ability to do the assignment.
• A student must also use the correct standard method of referencing sources. With both in-text citations and a Bibliography at the end.
• Students can have a look at the Referencing guide on the LMS for further information.

Disciplinary Process

• Plagiarism is a criminal offence because it is also the theft of someone else’s academic or intellectual property.
• A student can get a criminal record against their name and be banned for 10 years from any accredited academic Tertiary institution should they be found guilty of such a repeated offence.
• We can allow for a maximum of 20% similarity within a student’s assignment, but anything more than that will result in the assessors investigating the student’s assignment for plagiarism.
• If the student is guilty, he/she will get 0 marks for that question or the entire assignment, depending on the seriousness of the offence.
• Assessors will have to highlight all the plagiarism of the student’s assignment in yellow to indicate the plagiarism to the assessment liaison officer, moderator, and facilitator.
• The assessor must give 0 for the question on the assessment where plagiarism was committed.

First offence

• The first time a student does commit plagiarism the assessor of the assignment must inform the assessment liaison officer so that the assessment liaison officer can inform the student’s facilitator to give the student a verbal warning and assist them not to commit plagiarism again.
• The Facilitator must ensure that their students understand what plagiarism is, and how to give credit to one’s sources correctly.
• The student will also get 0 for the assignment, should they be guilty of Plagiarism as stipulated above.
• The student will have to redo the assignment and pay the reassessment fee of R100.00.

Second offence

• If the student is found guilty of plagiarism again for the 2nd time. Excel head office will send a final written warning to the student, stating that if the student commits plagiarism again, they will be subject to a disciplinary hearing. • Again, the assessor needs to inform the 2nd offence of plagiarism to the Liaison Officer who will again inform the student’s facilitator and the facilitator will be cc’d into the email containing the final written warning. • The Assessment Liaison officer will keep the operational manager informed at all times of each offence of plagiarism. • The student will also get 0 for the assignment, should they be guilty of Plagiarism as stipulated above. • The student will have to redo the assignment and pay the reassessment fee of R100.00.

Third Offence

• If the student after receiving the final written warning commits plagiarism again. The assessor will again inform the Assessment liaison officer who then in turn will inform the Operational manager.
• The student will also get 0 for the assignment, should they be guilty of Plagiarism as stipulated above.
• The student will then along with his/her facilitator be summoned to a disciplinary hearing, which will involve the guilty student, the student’s facilitator, the assessment Liaison officer, the assessor/assessors that identified the plagiarism in the student’s assessment, the Moderator, the operational manager, as well as the CEO of Excel Christian Counselling.
• The disciplinary hearing will be held and decided whether the student’s studies with Excel Christian Counselling will continue.
• Should the council mentioned above decide based on the outcome of the disciplinary hearing that the student can no longer study at the institution, the student’s studies at Excel Christian Counselling will immediately be suspended. and the student will be expelled from Excel Christian Counselling The student will also not be allowed to enrol at Excel Christian Counselling for the next 10 years.
• In the case where the council decides that the student can continue with their studies at the institution. It will be on the basis that the student can never again commit any form of plagiarism in his academic papers. In the case where the student commits plagiarism again after the disciplinary hearing, the student’s studies will immediately be suspended and the student will be expelled from Excel Christian Counselling. The student will also not be allowed to enrol at Excel Christian Counselling for the next 10 years.
• Excel Christian Counselling also has the right to lay criminal charges against the student if necessary.

Plagiarism Agreement form

Please use this link to download the Plagiarism Agreement.

Complete the form, the form must be signed with your signature and submit the form below.