UMUC Plagiarism Policy

UMUC’s plagiarism policy underpins the institution’s desire to uphold academic integrity in the school community. This includes principles such as honesty, truth, as well as fairness and respect. The aim is to underline the need to avoid dishonesty in all its forms including plagiarism, fabrication, bribery for grades, cheating, and others. This is a common problem in learning institutions, and UMUC seeks to clarify its position. It makes it evident that students have a responsibility to understand plagiarism and avoid it because it amounts to dishonesty. This is depicted as involving morality and proper conduct. Thus, integrity is increasingly significant to the organization’s functions and processes meaning students have a role to play towards this end. The institution’s plagiarism guidelines also spell out the procedures to handle cases of academic dishonesty. This is vital because it means there is due process to be followed in the event of cheating. As an example, a grade of G is given until the course of action is completed (UMUC, 2017). The implication is that the student and faculty are given an opportunity to evaluate the serious cases of plagiarism to determine the best disciplinary action. As such, fairness is emphasized to ensure that all stakeholders get a fair deal regarding academic and life achievements. It must be noted that dishonesty in the form of plagiarism leads to undue advantage because a genuine ability of a student is not reflected in academic outcomes. For this reason, UMUC’s plagiarism procedures explain the need to avoid cheating among learners. It can be said that the policy serves as a deterrence tool because it outlines not only the different forms of dishonesty including plagiarism but also lists sanctions that may apply.