What is academic misconduct?
The IB defines student academic misconduct as deliberate or inadvertent behaviour that has the potential to result in the student, or anyone else, gaining an unfair advantage in one or more components of assessment. Behaviour that may disadvantage another student is also regarded as academic misconduct.
It also includes any act that potentially threatens the integrity of IB examinations and assessments that happens before, during or after the completion of the assessment or examination, paper-based or on-screen. This includes behaviour in school, out of school and online. (IBO, 2023, s. 3)
This is aligned with the school’s policy on academic misconduct:
What is considered cheating and plagiarism?
Examples of cheating include using illegal aids, collaborating with others without permission, or presenting someone else's work as your own.
Plagiarism is the direct copying or slight rephrasing of others' texts – without source references and without marking the text as a quotation.
Plagiarism is not always a deliberate act, but can occur if you misunderstand how sources should be used. To avoid plagiarism and cheating, it is important to learn proper source usage.
To ensure consistency and fairness for the students, the IB at Gjøvik videregående enforces the following rules, aligned with the school’s policy about Reactions to cheating, plagiarism and poor use of sources:
Incorrect referencing: parts of the work is plagiarised:
- Substantial parts (20–50%) of the work are “borrowed” or copied without references: the student will be supervised by the subject teacher and can resubmit the work within 24 hours.
- Minor parts (less than 20%) of the work are “borrowed” or copied without references (in-text citations and the list of references): the student will be supervised by the subject teacher and can resubmit the work within 24 hours, or the work is assessed according to the given criteria and incorrect use of referencing will lead to lower criteria marks.
Categories of student academic misconduct
IB students may engage in acts considered as academic misconduct at different times in the assessment cycle, which may affect the completion of coursework or the examinations themselves. These acts may not be committed with a clear intention to gain an unfair advantage, but can also be a result of poor knowledge of the relevant subject guidelines.
Coursework
When a student seeks and receives assistance from others such as teachers, peer students, tutors and parents or legal guardians, beyond what is recommended in the subject guidelines during the completion of a piece of work, that student is receiving assistance that, in the first place, not everyone has at their disposal. This also affects the assessment process since the work is not entirely produced by the student in question.
Similarly, a student may be tempted to obtain support through the many resources available on the internet. For example, there are many websites that offer "help" and make available finished pieces of work in exchange for another. The condition of these websites is that this other document, shared by the student seeking support, will also be available in their repository to which other students in the world have access. When a student faces the pressures associated with the final period in which all work must be completed, there is also the possibility of trying shortcuts and sometimes students "duplicate" work.
Written examinations
During the writing time of the examinations, students can also engage in acts of academic misconduct, which may range from the possession of banned items such as notes, mobile phones and other IT equipment, to the exhibition of disruptive behaviour. Equally, students may not attempt to answer examination questions and instead invest their time writing offensive or obscene and/or irrelevant comments. Assisting other students in the same or a different school to commit academic misconduct also represents a serious offence.
Another inherent risk that is affecting the student community is the use of social media platforms on the internet. With very good intentions, student communities organize study groups in which they share review materials and strategies to better prepare themselves for the final examinations. However, there is a risk that participants of those groups obtain and share examination materials, that is, live examination content or coursework that has reached the internet through fraudulent practices.
Students should be reminded about the responsible use of social media; everything that is posted or shared online leaves a digital footprint behind and can become public. Even conversations considered private such as the ones taking place in closed groups on social media platforms have the potential to be shared by any member of that group.
All IB students are expected to inform their school administrators and programme coordinators immediately if an act that compromises the integrity of the examination is identified.
Definitions and examples of academic misconduct
The following definitions are borrowed from the IB “Academic integrity policy” (IBO, 2023):
Academic integrity
Academic integrity is a guiding principle in education and a choice to act in a responsible way whereby others can have trust in us as individuals. It is the foundation for ethical decision-making and behaviour in the production of legitimate, authentic and honest scholarly work.
School maladministration
The IB defines school maladministration as an action by an IB World School or an individual associated with an IB World School that infringes IB rules and regulations, and potentially threatens the integrity of IB examinations and assessments. It can happen before, during or after the completion of an assessment component or completion of an examination.
Consequences of unethical practise for teachers
If a teacher engages in school maladministration, this will be reported to the diploma coordinator who will investigate further and report to the school leadership. The diploma coordinator will guide the teacher in understanding and meting the expectations of the school’s academic integrity policy.
Student academic misconduct
The IB defines student academic misconduct as deliberate or inadvertent behaviour that has the potential to result in the student, or anyone else, gaining an unfair advantage in one or more components of assessment.
Behaviour that may disadvantage another student is also regarded as academic misconduct. It also includes any act that potentially threatens the integrity of IB examinations and assessments that happens before, during or after the completion of the assessment or examination, paper-based or on-screen. This includes behaviour in school, out of school and online.
Consequences of academic misconduct for students
Aligned with the school’s policy about Reactions to cheating, plagiarism and poor use of sources, these are the consequences of academic misconduct for the student:
Internal school consequences
- Academic misconduct:
the use of illegal aids (based on the rules for the relevant test or work), including collusion with others or receiving help with a task from others:
a. Behaviour reprimand
b. Not applicable for grading (N/A) - Facilitating plagiarism:
the work has been created by someone else:
a. Behaviour reprimand
b. Not applicable for grading (N/A) or, if some work is produced by the student, the work is assessed according to the assessment criteria’s lowest mark bands. - Plagiarism:
large parts of the work is not the student’s work or has been taken from another work and no references are stated:
a. The grade 1 or not applicable (N/A), depending on whether the student has produced work on their own or not.
IB consequences
Cases of possible student academic misconduct are reported to the IB by external stakeholders such as examiners, programme coordinators, teachers and whistle-blowers or are identified by the IB, such as through samples of work or review of responses to examination papers.
Consequences of non-acceptable use of AI in IAs and course work (EE, TOK essay. HL essay in Language A)
If the school (teacher and DP Coordinator) is not certain that the work a student submits for moderation/external assessment is written by the student themselves or there is not satisfactory evidence (as references) that the student has adhered to the guidelines in this policy, the school will not submit this work. The student will get a chance to rewrite the work supervised by a teacher, without having access to the internet or other forms of communication.
If a final piece of work has plagiarized content or is not completed according to the subject guide requirements, this component will be awarded an “F” (fail) on the IB internal assessment mark entry system or marked as non-submission in the case of externally assessed components, such as the EE, or TOK essay, and as a consequence the student would not be eligible for a final grade in the subject concerned.
When academic misconduct is identified after the work has been submitted to the IB, the programme coordinator informs the IB as soon as possible.
Incidents related to examinations
Gjøvik vgs follows all instructions for the conduct of examinations as detailed by the relevant version of the “Conduct of examinations booklet”. All students must have a clear understanding of the IB’s expectations in terms of the conduct of the written examinations.
If a student is found to be in breach of regulations, the school contacts the IB within 24 hours of the examination to report the incident. Students are not allowed to continue with the examination in question unless their presence in the examination room is disruptive to other students. The student’s examination script is submitted for assessment as usual—this is to allow them to receive a grade if it is decided that no misconduct has occurred.
Student sanctions
By registering for an IB education, the student recognizes the authority of the IB to apply sanctions, including withdrawal of services, if the organization believes academic misconduct has occurred. Penalties apply in instances of academic misconduct where the IB has taken action against a student who is registered for IB-assessed components.
The IB may investigate issues that could be considered academic misconduct even if they are not listed in this document. During investigations into academic misconduct, evidence and statements from all involved parties will be gathered. Each case will be judged on the evidence available, and any sanction applied will be based on the penalty matrix stated in the “IB Academic integrity policy”.
When evidence is not conclusive, subject-matter experts will be consulted and any sanction will be applied using the balance of probabilities approach.
Retaking examinations or resubmitting coursework
The IB will decide if the student found in breach of regulations will be allowed to retake their examinations or coursework, and when such a retake could take place. Typically, the IB would allow one of the following for students penalized for academic misconduct:
- Retake in six months, depending on subject availability
- Retake in 12 months
- No retake allowed, but award of grades in subjects not affected by the incident
Additional sanctions
In addition to the described penalties in the matrix, the IB may impose the following sanctions for repeated, multiple and/or very serious offences happening during one or multiple examination sessions, or across programmes.
- Change in registration category
This would mean a change to the “course” category. Students will be given the opportunity to retake the subject concerned, but due to change in category they will not be eligible for the full IB diploma. - Permanent disqualification from current and/or different programmes
DP students—no grade awarded in any subject and no retake session allowed.