Submitting a purchased assignment

code | scenario | smart strategies | consequences

Code of Behaviour on Academic Matters

1. It shall be an offence for a student knowingly:

(d) to represent as one’s own an idea or expression of an idea or work of another in any academic examination or term test or in connection with any other form of academic work, i.e. to commit plagiarism;

Wherever in the Code an offence is described as depending on “knowing”, the offence shall likewise be deemed to have been committed if the person ought reasonably to have known.

Scenario – Submitting a purchased assignment

You are a first-year Master of Engineering student, and are required to submit a computer programing assignment worth 20% for the final grade of a course. Part of the current programming assignment is similar to a program you submitted in a different course last semester. Seeking to build and improve on that previous programming solution, you search for possible programming solutions on a freelance website that offers solutions for purchase. You purchase a program with the intention to use it as a reference to improve on your previous assignment. You integrate a copy of the purchased program  into your previous assignment and submit the combined solution, without any references or citation to indicate that part of the work is not your own.

The Issue

Purchasing a solution online and then submitting it as one’s own work constitutes plagiarism under the Code.  Remember that paying money for an assignment is considered to be an especially serious form of misconduct, and will likely result in very serious penalties under the Code.

In addition, submitting an assignment that you previously submitted in a different course is also an offence under the Code.

Smart Strategies

  • Students may consult online solutions in preparing their own academic assignments, however any online sources that contribute to the assignment must be properly referenced and cited.
  • All information that is taken from an online source must be appropriately cited when used in submitted assignments.
  • The student should also have consulted with the instructor to check if using the previously submitted assignment as part of the new assignment is acceptable.

Range of Consequences

For a discussion of consequences see Key Consequences.