Statement of Policy

Work submitted for academic credit including, but not limited to, examinations, courses, and portfolios must be the student’s own work and it must cite all sources of both ideas and of any words or graphics that may be copied from another source. Failure to properly cite sources constitutes plagiarism. At the time of enrollment in Excelsior College, students are required to read the Academic Honesty and Plagiarism policies and to indicate their compliance.

What is Plagiarism?

Work that appears to be authored by the student, but in reality is the work of someone else, is considered plagiarism and is in violation of the Excelsior College Academic Honesty Policy. The entire content of the work presented by a student is assumed to be original unless the source is explicitly noted. If a student presents even one sentence or phrase by another writer as his or her own without properly citing the source of those ideas or words, plagiarism has been committed. At Excelsior College, an act of plagiarism is considered to be a violation of the Academic Honesty Policy, whether intended or not.

Excelsior College requires a student to submit work that is their own. However, the College also recognizes that one of the central features of academic study is building upon ideas of others to strengthen one's own work. However, failure to cite the original source is plagiarism since the writer is presenting something as his or her own work, although it has actually been taken from someone else's.

What is Not Plagiarism?

Excelsior College does not consider re-use of sections of a student’s own original work in subsequent assignments to be plagiarism as long as the copied work has been cited, the student has received prior approval of the faculty, and the new assignment expands upon the original work. An assignment that contain a high percentage of properly cited quotations is also not considered to be an act of plagiarism although may represent a poorly written paper.

Guidelines for Faculty Members and Others Responsible for Evaluating Student Work

While it is ultimately the student’s responsibility to ensure that he or she does not commit plagiarism, Excelsior College expects its faculty to be familiar with proper source citation, to instruct students on appropriate citation style, and, to notify the appropriate dean or designee when a student’s source citation practice appears a deliberate violation of the Excelsior College Plagiarism and Academic Honesty policies. Faculty members are expected to review the source of the alleged plagiarism with the student to promote a better understanding of proper citation and the use of original work.

To engage faculty, the College makes available plagiarism detection software to be used by all instructors. Students must accept the use of the plagiarism detention software (see Electronic Use policy).

The College also expects the faculty member to exercise appropriate discretion in the interpretation of such an incident.

What Happens When a Student Plagiarizes

Student work that the instructor believes may be due to lack of knowledge of proper citation should be addressed directly with the student by the instructor.

The faculty member will warn the student of the seriousness of the incident and offer the student resources to learn proper source citation practice.

If a faculty member believes that student work has been intentionally plagiarized or if the work evidences little or none of the student's original work, the faculty member will notify the dean or dean's designee of possible violation of the Excelsior College Plagiarism and Academic Honesty policies. Faculty may refuse to accept plagiarized content and grade the student work accordingly such as assigning a failing grade for the assignment or giving only partial credit for the assignment. However, the College retains responsibility for levying disciplinary action for a violation of the Plagiarism and Academic Honesty policies.

Even when there are incidents of plagiarism, faculty members must follow the grading procedures as specified in the course syllabus. Any incident of plagiarism should be documented in the student record in the student information system.

Deans or designees who receive notification from faculty of such intended and/or repeated plagiarism incidents will document the incident(s) in the student’s record, initiate investigation, and treat the incident in accordance with the College’s Academic Honesty Policy with respect to any disciplinary action. The student may appeal disciplinary action in accordance with the Student Appeals Policy appeal procedure.