What are the Consequences of Plagiarism at UNISA?
The University of South Africa is the biggest institute in South Africa for offering internationally accredited qualifications and distance learning to students around the globe in various disciplines.
The University has a great reputation for providing quality education and learning modules that help students in getting higher education in their interest and building their career path. The institute has strict rules and regulations that are developed to maintain the quality and curriculum within the university and to avoid any illegal conduct.
Likewise, plagiarism is one of the highlighted issues in educational institutes and the Unisa is no exception. The University of South Africa offers no sympathy for plagiarism and cheating in examination.
It cancels the modules that students are enrolled in, withdraws their marks in examination, and implements a suspension of five years not only from UNISA but also from other public and private sector universities of South Africa.
UNISA Values
The Univeristy of South Africa has enlisted these values and terminologies in their protocols and all the actions and assessment criteria are designed to follow the Unisa values and terms. These values include integrity, discipline, humanity, respect, honesty, and commitment. As far as plagiarism is concerned, the honesty element stands out and to be honest, the Unisa has no tolerance for dishonesty, plagiarism, cheating, or any similar activity performed by students in the examination.
Any Unisa student who is found to be committed or participated in dishonesty, plagiarism, fraud, or any similar activity in exams will be referred to the official corresponding shell called Unisa Student Disciplinary Unit for the investigation of the case and the considerable actions against any false act.
Plagiarism Definition By UNISA
Plagiarism means taking someone’s ideas, materials, thoughts, writings, or anything related and presenting these as your own. It is a serious crime in education and can result in expulsion, withdrawal, and penalties which will impact the student’s entire career and reputation in the institution in which he/she is enrolled as well as all the other institutes.
To be on the safe side, every student should acknowledge and cite the original holder of the content or source whenever he/she phrases something, quote someone’s work, draw a chart using someone else’s data, or more, always paraphrase the content in your own words and try to mold it as per your opinions, be careful when giving the citations, please avoid copy-pasting the content from any other source, prevent using AI tools for paraphrasing the content, don’t use the work of your class fellows or friends, and always provide authentic and full reference.
Plagiarism Assessment
To assess plagiarism, Unisa and many other public and private sector institutes use “Turnitin” which detects plagiarism and also quotes the source from where a student has copied the content.
It provides the assessment results in percentage and every educational institute has a specific threshold limit or tolerance against plagiarism, for instance, Unisa has given students a relief of 19% plagiarized content. If you want to know more about this, please visit the official website of the university.
Actions Against Plagiarism
At Unisa, if a student has committed such a crime, the university will cancel out all the modules in which he/she was enrolled. Also, the university will suspend the student not only from Unisa but also from all other institutes for at least five years which will cause a major study gap in the student’s career.
What are the punishments for plagiarism at Unisa?
Unisa suspends the student for five years from all educational institutes, cancels his/her admission from all the modules, and withdrawal the student from examinations.
That’s all for the plagiarism at Unisa! No matter whether you’re copying someone’s thoughts, ideas, phrases, or whatever, the University of South Africa will take serious actions against such conduct and this is to be done to maintain the discipline, honesty, and related curriculum within the institute. I hope that your mind is now clear about the consequences, definitions, terms, and conditions related to plagiarism at Unisa.