Invigilators, or proctors, monitor you while you take these exams to ensure there is no plagiarism, collusion, cheating, fabrication of data or possession of unauthorised materials. This is done for ‘in-person’ exams as well as ‘remote’ online exams:
Programme teams closely review any issues raised by invigilators and decide if there is sufficient concern, in which case they contact the student to discuss the allegation. If the Programme team are still concerned that there has been a breach in regulations, they will escalate the case to BPP’s Office of Regulation and Compliance (ORC).
ORC will follow up with the student and an Academic Misconduct Panel to conduct a formal process to review whether academic malpractice has taken place and any follow-up actions which will need to be taken.
Academic malpractice can be either:
or
Full details are found in BPP’s Manual of Policies and Procedures and summary guides are in section 10 ‘What to do if things go wrong’.
| Type of Academic Malpractice: | Academic Misconduct | Poor Academic Practice |
|---|---|---|
| Definition: | “any act, or attempted act, leading to circumstances whereby a student might gain an unpermitted or unfair advantage in an assessment or in the determination of results, whether by advantaging themselves or by advantaging or disadvantaging” | “an inept or inadvertent breach of the conventions or regulations of academic practice, committed through a defensible ignorance of those conventions and regulations, where no distinguishable advantage may be or has been accrued to the student, and where there is no discernible intention to deceive” |
| Forms: | Plagiarism, Collusion, Fabrication, Impersonation, Contract Cheating, Misrepresentation, Unauthorised Possession or Reference, Bribery/Intimidation, Breach of the Rubrics of Assessment, False Attribution | |
| Penalty or remedy: | Penalties can include: Activity with educational benefit, Written warning in student’s file, Voiding the assessment, Reporting to the professional body | Remedy: Addressed through correction & education by Programme Leader, Advantage is removed (e.g. by voiding assessment), Repeated incidents may be treated as academic misconduct |