Academic integrity: what it is and how to avoid a breach
The University expects you to act honestly and ethically during your studies. This includes when you are researching, writing and completing assessment tasks, and when you are taking exams.
The University takes academic integrity very seriously. If you are suspected of being dishonest, you will be investigated and may receive penalties.
New coursework students need to complete the Academic Honesty Education Module (AHEM) available on Canvas. This module will help you understand the standards of academic integrity expected of you.
Other resources to help you understand academic integrity include:
Breaches of academic integrity
An academic integrity breach includes plagiarism, recycling, collusion, contract cheating and exam cheating, as defined by the University. A student might breach academic integrity requirements accidentally, or they may intentionally do something dishonest or unfair to gain an academic advantage.
Common breaches of academic integrity include:
- plagiarism
- recycling or resubmitting work from previous assessments
- using fake or false research data
- collusion or illegitimate cooperation (unauthorised collaboration between students when the work is meant to be produced individually)
- cheating during an exam
- contract cheating (when someone else writes or contributes to your assessment)
- unapproved or inappropriate use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) or writing tools.
The most serious breaches of academic integrity can be considered academic misconduct. Academic misconduct investigations can lead to heavy penalties such as suspension or exclusion from your degree. If you receive an allegation of academic misconduct, you should contact us for advice immediately before you respond to the University.
How to maintain good academic integrity
Developing good study habits can help reduce errors in the academic work you submit.
Take good notes
Always keep your own thoughts and ideas separate from the ideas presented in the materials you are studying. This will help you clearly understand which ideas are yours and which ideas you need to reference. Poor note taking can easily lead to an accusation of plagiarism.
Use appropriate research tools
Don’t rely only on Google, Baidu or YouTube for your academic research. The University’s Academic Liaison Librarians can help you find suitable scholarly search engines.
Manage your time
Don’t leave researching, editing and referencing to the last minute. Make sure you have enough time to conduct your academic research and to properly check your references before submitting.
Understand your role in group work
Navigating academic integrity in group work can be challenging, especially when students prepare different parts of an assessment separately. If an academic integrity breach is suspected, the whole group will receive allegations, even if only one student was directly responsible. When doing group work, you should:
- Decide on processes for checking the quality of sources and cross-checking all references.
- Keep a record of how you made decisions as a group and how tasks were allocated.
- Keep draft copies of your contributions to the group work.
Learn to paraphrase properly
Get expert help early in your course. Learning how to paraphrase appropriately takes time, patience and practice. If you are unclear on how to paraphrase well, get advice from your unit coordinator, academic learning advisors, the Learning Hub or the Academic Liaison Librarians.
Improve your academic English skills
Don’t rely on Google Translate to change drafts that are written in another language into English. Using Google Translate too much can lead to a high similarity index in the Turnitin similarity report, meaning you will face an allegation of an academic integrity breach. If you need to improve your written English, seek assistance from the Learning Hub. You can also practice conversational English skills with the Library’s Peer Learning Advisors. The Library has online guides to help you understand referencing and citation styles.
AI use in assessments
The University permits the use of generative AI tools for general learning purposes. You must adhere to all University policies when using permissible AI and ensure you appropriately acknowledge your use of AI, if required.
The University has a ‘two-lane’ approach to allowing AI use in assessments:
- You will generally not be permitted to use AI in secure (supervised) tasks, such as exams and tests, unless you have express permission from the unit of study coordinator.
- For open (unsupervised) tasks, you will be able to use AI and need to appropriately declare its use.
Whether you can use AI or not for a particular assessment will be detailed in your unit of study outline. Using AI when not allowed, or not acknowledging your use of AI, could be considered a breach of academic integrity.
The University’s AI in Education resource in Canvas outlines ways you can use generative AI productively and responsibly in your studies.
Find more information about academic integrity and AI use.
How to avoid academic integrity beaches when using AI
- Ensure you follow the guidelines for your units of study and assessments.
- Ensure that you declare your use of AI according to these guidelines.
- If AI use is permitted, keep track of all the ways you have used AI and keep copies of generative AI outputs as evidence for your research and writing process.
- Ensure that you take ownership for your final work, including group work assessments.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism means using someone else’s words or ideas in your submitted assessment without proper acknowledgement. Plagiarism is something that can be done on purpose or accidentally and can include copying any material without correct referencing. Find out more about plagiarism.
The most common types of plagiarism are:
- copying another person’s work and presenting it as your own
- failing to reference another author’s work properly
- poorly paraphrasing another author’s text and then failing to properly reference that work.
Students sometimes unintentionally plagiarise because they don’t understand referencing requirements. The University takes all forms of plagiarism seriously.
How plagiarism is detected
The University detects possible plagiarism in 2 ways:
- The person marking an assessment will sometimes notice plagiarism.
- Software, such as Turnitin, is used to detect similarities.
Markers and examiners are required to report suspected plagiarism.
What is Turnitin?
Turnitin is text-matching software that compares similarities between an assessment and millions of other assessments, academic journal articles, web pages and other texts. Turnitin generates ‘similarity reports’ that can trigger an allegation or be used as evidence of plagiarism.
Turnitin also has a tool for detecting use of AI in student work. The AI detector score can be relied upon as evidence in academic integrity cases, alongside other relevant evidence.
Tips for avoiding plagiarism:
- Learn to reference according to the requirements of your faculty, school or department.
- Complete any training provided by your faculty on how to reference properly, or attend a Learning Hub workshop. The Learning Hub’s Using Evidence & Avoiding Plagiarism modules on Canvas can help you understand quoting, paraphrasing and summarising, and learn strategies for avoiding plagiarism.
- Read relevant style guides, course handbooks and your unit outlines.
- Complete the Academic Honesty in Education Module (AHEM), available in Canvas.
- Develop your skills in quoting, summarising and paraphrasing using the Write Site on Canvas.
If in doubt, talk with your lecturer, unit coordinator or academic advisers within your faculty.
Contract cheating
When another person writes or contributes to your assessment, it is known as contract cheating. If you write or contribute to another student’s assessment or help another student by giving them your assignment to copy and submit as their own work, this is also contract cheating.
Contract cheating is academic misconduct and the University takes it very seriously.
Contract cheating includes:
- When you use a commercial service or business (even if you don’t pay).
- When a friend, family member or fellow student contributes too much to your work.
Never get someone else to do your university work for you.
How to avoid contract cheating
Beware of contract cheating businesses
Do not use commercial services or businesses that offer:
- tutoring in a specific Usyd assessment task
- ghostwriting (someone writing your assessment for you)
- plagiarism checking
- file sharing (for example, sharing of study notes).
Avoid tutoring businesses that:
- are not approved by senior members of your faculty
- are advertised on WeChat
- offer courses in languages other than English.
These businesses can put you at risk. It is likely that they have copied or re-used the work of past students, which will lead to a high similarity index in Turnitin when you submit your assignment. Tutoring businesses which give students the answers to an assessment task do not provide an ethical learning experience.
Contract cheating services can also have very poor data security, and some of them have used students’ personal details inappropriately, posing a security risk to you and the University. Avoid commercial services that are not approved by or affiliated with the University and always check with your faculty. Be suspicious of services that are only promoted by other students or student societies.
You should also be careful of sharing documents such as unit of study outlines and lecture slides on platforms like Course Hero. These documents are the intellectual property of the University. Sharing these with external parties could lead to an allegation of academic dishonesty or academic misconduct.
Don’t ask for help from friends and family
Never ask a friend or family member to contribute to or complete your individual assessment for you. Never complete work for another student or give them your assessment task even if you are finished with that subject. Students might exchange ideas but if this results in similar wording and ideas in your submitted assessments, you will be investigated for academic integrity breaches. Changing words or phrases is not enough to disguise collaboration.
Need more help?
If you have any questions about academic integrity, or you have received an allegation of an academic integrity breach, contact our caseworkers for help.
Policy
Check the University policy register, in particular:
Academic Integrity Policy 2022 and Academic Integrity Procedures 2022
- describe the principles underpinning the University’s approach to academic integrity, and expectations of students to promote these
- outline the University’s process for handling allegations of academic integrity breaches by students enrolled in coursework award courses.
- describes the University’s understanding of good research practice and expectations of researchers
- outlines the University’s process for dealing with cases of academic dishonesty and misconduct related to research.
University of Sydney (Student Discipline) Rule 2016
- governs the management of misconduct matters related to current and former students, where the alleged misconduct occurred when the student was enrolled at the University
- outlines penalties for misconduct and the University’s disciplinary process.
- Student Charter 2020
sets out the mutual expectations between students and the University to create a productive and safe environment for learning.
Academic Integrity Decision-making and Penalty Guidelines 2023
- provide a guide for Educational Integrity Coordinators (and other academics nominated by a dean) to determine allegations of academic integrity breaches for coursework students.
Acceptable Use of ICT Resources Policy 2025
- outlines acceptable and unacceptable use of the University’s Information and Technology (ICT) systems.
Written by SUPRA Postgraduate Advocacy Service September 2025
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