The University has a Code of Student Conduct that is binding on all students including USP students. All students are expected to know and be familiar with this Code from the first day they join the University. Part (A) of the NUS Code of Student Conduct addresses Academic, Professional and Personal Integrity.

Below, we detail what Academic Integrity means in USP, what constitutes academic dishonesty, and the implications.

Respect for the Integrity of the Academic Process

The rights and responsibilities that accompany academic freedom are at the heart of the intellectual integrity of the University. Students are therefore expected to behave honestly in their learning.

Academic achievement is ordinarily evaluated on the basis of work that a student produces independently. A student who obtains credit for work, words, or ideas which are not the products of his or her own effort is dishonest. Such dishonesty undermines the integrity of academic standards of the University, and therefore entails punishments.

Students in USP are expected to tell the truth. Misrepresentation of facts, significant omissions or falsifications in any connection with the academic process are not acceptable. Misunderstanding the integrity of the Academic Process will not be accepted as an excuse for dishonest work. If a student is in doubt on some points as they affect work in a particular course or as they may be interpreted in practice, he or she should consult the instructor in the course or the USP Academic Director, so as to avoid the serious charge of academic dishonesty.

Basic Policy

A student's name on any exercise (e.g., a theme, report, notebook, performance, computer programme, course paper, quiz, or examination) is regarded as assurance that that exercise is the result of the student's own thoughts and study, stated in his or her own words, and produced without assistance, except as quotation marks, references, and footnotes acknowledge the use of printed sources or other outside help. In some instances, an instructor or department may authorise students to work jointly in solving problems or completing projects; such efforts must be clearly marked as the results of collaboration. Unless permission is obtained in advance from the instructors of the courses involved, a student may not submit the same exercise in more than one course. Students who perceive the possibility of an overlapping assignment should consult with their instructors before presuming that a single effort will meet the requirements of both courses.

Where collaboration is authorised, students should be very clear as to which parts of any assignment must be performed independently.

Use of Sources

In preparing assignments, a student often needs or is required to employ outside sources of information or opinion. All such sources should be listed in the bibliography.

Footnote references are required for all specific facts that are not common knowledge and that do not obtain general agreement. New discoveries or debatable opinions must be credited to the source with specific references to edition and page even when the student restates the matter in his or her own words. Inclusion word-for-word of any part, even if only a phrase or sentence, from the written or oral statement of someone else requires citation in quotation marks and using the appropriate conventions for attribution. Citations should normally include author, title, edition and page. (Quotations longer than one sentence are generally indented from the text of the essay, without quotation marks, and identified by author, title, edition, page.) Paraphrasing or summarising the contents of another's work is not dishonest if the source or sources are clearly identified (author, title, edition, page), but such paraphrasing does not constitute independent work and may be rejected by the instructor.

Laboratory Work and Assignments

Notebooks, homework, and reports of investigations or experiments must meet the same standards as all other written work. If any of the work is done jointly or if any part of the experiment or analysis is made by anyone other than the writer, acknowledgment of this fact must be made in the report submitted. Obviously, it is dishonest for a student to falsify or invent data.

Creative Work

A piece of work presented as the individual creation of the student is assumed to involve no assistance other than incidental criticism from any other person. A student may not, with honesty, knowingly employ story material, wording or dialogue taken from published work, motion pictures, radios, television, lectures or similar sources, without full acknowledgment.

Examinations, Quizzes, and Tests

In writing examinations and quizzes, the student is required to respond entirely on the basis of his or her own memory and capacity, without any assistance whatsoever except such as is specifically authorised by the instructor.

Cheating on examinations and quizzes can take at least the following forms: using another individual to take an examination or quiz in one's place; bringing into the exam room unauthorised materials from which one gains unfair assistance; appropriating an exam or exam materials without authorisation; purposely missing an exam in order to gain an advantage; copying during an examination; improper collaboration or unauthorised assistance on take-home examinations; other actions that undermine equity and reduce the objectivity of evaluation of student work.

Other Forms of Dishonesty

In addition to fraudulent uses of sources as described above, dishonesty includes a number of offences that circumvent procedures set up to produce a fair grade. The use of services of commercial "research" companies is cheating and a punishable offence. Students are not allowed to base their course work on papers, reports, or other exercises that have been saved or kept on file from earlier years. Students are also not allowed to submit papers, reports, or other exercises in satisfaction of the requirements of more than one course. Any falsification of records or routines for grading is dishonest, whether before or after graduation. Withholding, removing or destroying materials needed by other students for class exercises is as much an offence against the Integrity of Academic Process as plagiarism. Lying in the course of investigation of an Academic Dishonesty case is also unacceptable and punishable.

Students should be scrupulous in learning the principles that govern each new area of computer operations to which they are introduced. Unauthorised collaboration, unauthorised borrowing of someone else's data or programmes, and use of the USP computers for unethical purposes are subject to disciplinary or even legal action.

Community Values and Benefits

The interests and long-range welfare of the University community are best served if all its members, faculty, students, and staff, feel a commitment to principles upon which the Code of Student Conduct is based. Faculty are urged to review the procedures by which they evaluate student work, and to avoid situations and processes that may make it easy for a student to cut corners or get unauthorised assistance. Students are urged to consider that the public value of their education depends on the integrity of the grading system, and that academic dishonesty in any form dilutes the value of those grades. If they know of fellow students who are cheating, or taking unfair advantage of policies or procedures, they should bring that to the attention of the Academic Director, anonymously, if they wish.

Respect for the Integrity of the Academic Process is important and necessary. It is not intended to diminish collegiality in the USP. All of us learn from our colleagues; and education is, necessarily, not only a competitive, but also a cooperative enterprise. Simple justice requires, however, that students receive the quantity and quality of academic credit they have earned. Justice of this sort is by no means incompatible with the community values and shared experiences on which higher education is based.

Disciplinary Proceedings

Discipline with respect to students is governed by the University's Statutes and Regulations. Any student who is alleged to have committed or attempted to commit offences listed in Clause 3 of Statute 6 may be subject to disciplinary proceedings.

In USP, all cases of suspected academic dishonesty involving USP courses shall be referred to the USP Academic Director. Faculty and students are urged to report their suspicions, so that all members of the University community will feel equally responsible for academic honesty, and so that multiple offenders may be identified.

The person alleging a violation of the Code of Student Conduct shall provide copies of the work in question and indicate clearly the nature of the alleged violation in an accompanying narrative. In cases of plagiarism, the person making the charge shall provide copies of original sources, if available, marking plagiarised phrases, sentences, and/or paragraphs, and shall indicate borrowings in the accused's text and in original sources. In the case of an examination, the person making the charge shall provide copies of the examination in question, indicate specifically the grounds for the charge, and explain his or her process of discovery. Other alleged offences should be documented with equal thoroughness and in equal detail.

All cases of suspected academic dishonesty will be screened by the USP Academic Director, in consultation with concerned faculty and expert witnesses if needed. If, after screening, the USP Academic Director decides that academic dishonesty has been committed, he or she shall, as soon as possible, notify the student in writing of the specific charges of dishonesty, the nature of the evidence which has been presented against the student, and the penalties which will be imposed.

Penalties in Accordance with NUS Plagiarism Policy

The USP Academic Director (or the Academic Director's representative) is authorised to enact any penalty he or she judges to be appropriate, and in accordance with the prevailing NUS Plagiarism Policy and Guidance Note.

All NUS students can access via the Student Portal the latest revised (2021) NUS Plagiarism Policy and Guidance Note.

As NUS is taking a tougher stance against academic dishonesty, the minimum penalty for cases of plagiarism and cheating in tests/examinations/graded assignments that have been assessed to be ‘Moderate’ in severity, would be a ‘Fail’ grade for the affected course.

We urge all USP students to be familiar with this page as well as the NUS Plagiarism Policy from the first day of their academic journey with us. Together, let us uphold the highest standards of academic integrity and honesty at all times, as well as embrace diversity and show mutual respect for one another, both within USP, NUS and the wider Singapore community.