Faculty of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences Academic Integrity and Submission and Policy Notes

The provided documentation represents the official Assignment, Report & Laboratory Coversheet for both individual and group submissions within the Faculty of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences.
Required Administrative Information for Submission:
- Submitting Student Identity: Surname and Given Names.
- Student Number: Identification code of the primary submitting student.
- Academic Context: Unit Name and Unit Code.
- Content Category: Title or Topic of the specific assignment.
- Academic Oversight: Name of the Lecturer or Tutor responsible for the unit.
- Temporal Metadata: Date and Time Due vs. Date and Time Submitted.

Honours students must specifically indicate their status in the provided office use/honours section.
Word Count Certification: By signing the coversheet, Honours students assert that the length of their dissertation (word count) falls within the maximum permitted limits set by their specific project unit.
Penalties for Non-Compliance: Students are notified that penalties related to over-length dissertations exist and will be applied as outlined on the Faculty/University website.

Roster Capacity: The coversheet allows for the registration of up to $8$ group members (Student Numbers and Names $1$ through $8$).
Assumption of Contribution: In group contexts, it is assumed by the University that all group members have contributed equally to the assignment or laboratory report, unless alternate arrangements have been formally established.
Individual and Collective Responsibility: All group members must adhere to the declaration of academic conduct.

Certification Statement: Submission requires a formal declaration stating that the assignment or project is the student's own or the group's own collective work, with appropriate acknowledgments for all information sources.
Records Retention: Students/groups must declare they have retained a hard copy of the work for their records.
Requirement for Acceptance: No assignment will be officially accepted by the Faculty without the declaration being signed and dated.
Regulatory Reference: The submission is governed by University Policy $UP07/21$ .

Policy Purpose: This policy aims to promote ethical scholarship, develop academic literacy, and encourage a culture of academic integrity throughout the institution.
Institutional Philosophy: UWA posits that fostering ethical scholarship and academic literacy skills is essential to maintaining institutional integrity.
Definition of Ethical Scholarship: This involves the pursuit of scholarly enquiry defined by honesty and integrity. It applies to both individual and group study and forms part of an institutional commitment to robust, defensible, and transparent educational standards.
Definition of Academic Literacy: This is the capacity to perform research and study while communicating findings in a manner that follows the specific disciplinary conventions and scholarly standards of a university level.
Definition of Academic Integrity: A core value of education featuring honesty, trust, fairness, and responsibility in learning, teaching, and research. It demands respect for knowledge and its development.

Verbatim Definition of Plagiarism: The University defines plagiarism as "the unattributed (not referenced) use of someone else’s words, creations, ideas, arguments, etc. as one’s own."
Alternative Classifications: Plagiarism is also categorized as "academic misconduct" and the "misuse of evidence."
Modes of Plagiarism Occurrence:
- Insufficient referencing throughout the work.
- Referencing within the wrong location or using incorrect methodologies.
- Total lack of referencing.
- Presenting any external work as the author's own original work.
- Commercial Plagiarism: Buying and selling assignments is explicitly cited as one of the most serious forms of plagiarism.
Importance of Referencing:
- Prevention of plagiarism guilt.
- Provision of credibility and evidential support for arguments.
- Demonstration of the extent of research performed.
Disciplinary Variation: Referencing styles vary across disciplines at UWA; students must identify the style common to their specific field.
Support Resources: Information on avoiding plagiarism and proper referencing is available through the "STUDYSmarter Survival Guide."

Academic Misconduct Definition: Any activity or practice by a student that violates explicit guidelines regarding the production of work for assessment in a way that compromises or defeats the intended purpose of that assessment.
Breach of Academic Conduct: Any activity that specifically compromises the state of academic integrity.
Classification of Breaches: The severity of a breach is categorized into three distinct levels:
- Minor Breach ( $Level\,1$ ).
- Moderate Breach ( $Level\,2$ ).
- Major Breach ( $Level\,3$ ).
Formal Policy Access: Detailed information regarding misconduct and breaches is hosted on the University Policy on Academic Conduct website.