Academic Integrity - Fraud and consequences

Last updated on 6 May 2025

Some students cheat intentionally. Other students cheat through ignorance. Read all about types of fraud and (self) plagiarism and the risks.

Academic integrity: Fraud and consequences

You commit fraud when you make it impossible to assess your knowledge, or the knowledge of another student.

We all know that some students cheat intentionally. Other students cheat through ignorance, carelessness or because they succumb to pressure. Could that happen to you? How much do you really know about academic fraud? Have you read VU Amsterdam's Student Charter (chapter 10.2.3)? Did you read the Education and Exam arrangements of your faculty? Can you apply copyright and citation rules? Take some time and find out.

If you are new at VU, you can prevent unintentional fraud by reading and applying the rules used at VU Amsterdam. Every student should know the rules on fraud and plagiarism. If you do not, you can still be held accountable. You may not find cheating very tempting when you know the risks.

Consequences

When you are caught cheating, your work will be declared invalid. The sanction is determined per individual case. Even though details may vary across faculties, all students can receive one or more of these sanctions:

a reprimand;
exclusion from this examination;
all examinations for up to one year.

For the severest cases of fraud, you can be expelled from VU Amsterdam. You can also hurt others: if large scale fraud is suspected, an exam can be declared invalid for the entire class.

Long term

Cheating is not a shortcut; it will put you on the wrong track. When you pass exams through cheating and have not learned the study goals, you have made things more difficult for yourself. You will have trouble keeping up with more advanced courses or you can run into difficulties in your professional life.

No need for panic

If you know the rules you can act accordingly and prevent suspicions of fraud. If at some point you are suspected of fraud, there is no need to panic. A suspicion of fraud does not always result in a ‘guilty’ verdict. You will get the opportunity to give a statement before any judgement is made.

Fraud
The most common type of fraud is: pretending that something is your own work when it is not. But that is not the only type of fraud. The VU's definition of fraud is: any act or omission by a student that makes it fully or partially impossible to properly assess the knowledge, insight and skill of that student or another student.
Here are some examples:
- Sharing your work or answers with a student who has not completed the course.
- Exchanging answers during an exam, e.g. what’s app during an online exam.
- Impersonation: doing someone else’s work for them and vice versa.
- Publishing an exam or answer model online.
- Piggy backing in group assignments: letting others do all the work.
- Using explicitly forbidden materials, e.g.: book, cheat sheet, mobile phone, calculator, or having them with you during an exam.
- Looking at and copying work from another student.
- Trying to submit work after a deadline by lying to the teacher.
- Possessing exam questions or assignments before an exam.
- Paying someone to write your assignment.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is defined as using others' texts without acknowledgment or source references. Learning to distinguish between citing, paraphrasing and plagiarism takes time and effort. Scientific work is always based on the work that others have done before us. This means that you will often use texts written by others. That is why it is vital that you know how to apply the rules.
Examples of plagiarism are:
- Presenting something as your own work while using someone else's ideas, text, graphics or code.
- Forgetting to give credit to original authors.
- Being co-author of work that contains plagiarism.
Self-plagiarism
Self-plagiarism is a form of plagiarism that needs special attention. Self-plagiarism is about re-using one's own writing without sticking to the general rules of citing, paraphrasing and plagiarism.
According to the American Psychological Association (2010), the following regarding reusing one's own text should be observed in general: "When duplication of one's own words is more extensive, citation of the duplicated words should be the norm" and "must conform to legal notions of fair use" (pg. 16).
This means for students in a course or a programme in which the student can work on the same topic multiple times, the students should treat their own writing as being from another author and dealt with accordingly (proper citation and citing sparingly). If not properly cited, a teacher can conclude that a student has committed fraud because the work of a student submitted via Canvas with a plagiarism check will be matched against previously submitted work! For more information about this topic, see:
- Self-Plagiarism: Why it's a problem - centralpenn.edu
- Is Recycling Your Own Work Plagiarism? - turnitin.com
Violating research principles
It can be tempting to alter research outcomes: to leave out some results that do not conform with your hypothesis, or to beef up the numbers if your survey has only 6 respondents. Research fraud violates one of the main research principles: to carry out research work with care. In your research reports, you clearly explain and justify your starting point and conclusions, and you are transparent about the way in which you reached your results.
Examples of research principles violations:
- Tampering with data/results
- Changing citations to align them with your research theory
- Distorting a source's original meaning (e.g. by omitting relevant context)

Know the difference between peer learning and cheating

Peer teaching and peer learning are important and effective study strategies for students. However, giving a completed assignment to a friend who then copies content from your assignment to his or her assignment is not peer teaching and copying answers is not peer learning.

Unintentionally or otherwise, by passing on the assignment to a fellow student you enabled cheating to occur, and therefore you committed a violation. Even if you did not give permission to your friend to copy your work!

How can it be avoided?

Peer learning should be encouraged, since it helps students learn to teach. Instructors should explain effective peer teaching strategies such as working in pairs, sharing comments on work, and brainstorming solutions to problems in groups. Sharing completed work however is not an acceptable peer learning technique and gives ground to suspect you of academic dishonest behaviour.

_{The information and graphics on this page are courtesy of TU-Delft from}_{https://www.tudelft.nl/studenten/rechtspositie/fraude-plagiaat}_{. Content adapted to situation at VU Amsterdam}

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