Group Work

The University defines collusion as:

"Collusion, i.e. the unauthorised working with another person on a piece of work, and producing a single piece of work, in whole or in part, which is then submitted as part of a piece of coursework, without acknowledgement of the others' contribution. This differs from plagiarism where the owner of the work does not knowingly allow the use of their work.” 

Source: Chapter 12.3.1 d, ‘Collusion’, University of Exeter Teaching Quality Assurance Manual. https://as.exeter.ac.uk/academic-policy-standards/tqa-manual/aph/managingacademicmisconduct/

What this means is that where two students work together to submit work that is either wholly the same, or has parts which are identical, then this can be considered to be academic misconduct. When defining collusion, we need to be clear where the boundaries of unacceptable and acceptable co-operative or collaborative work are.

For more information on Collusion and Academic Honesty, visit the Academic Honesty and Plagiarism (Study Skills) course on ELE. Please note: this course is for review purposes only. You may have been asked to complete this course, in which case you will need to find your discipline-specific version in your My Courses list on ELE.

A starting point to avoiding collusion is making sure you know what is expected of you. If you are asked to do a joint assignment, this will be made very clear by your lecturer and in your module handbook. If you are unsure whether you are expected to work as a group, or what the boundaries are, be cautious and speak to your lecturer first.