1. 1 Plagiarism Policy Penalty Guidelines How to Avoid Plagiarism

2. 2 Policy  Plagiarism is defined as the unacknowledged use, as one's own, of work of another person, whether or not such work has been published. Acts of plagiarism include copying parts of a document in whatever media, using or extracting another person’s concepts, experimental results or conclusions.  Students who willingly provide the source for copying encourage plagiarism and will be penalized in the same light.  The University views plagiarism as a serious academic misconduct: leading to the imposition of heavy penalties, including expulsion from the University.

3. 3 Penalty Guidelines Inside Dept  If a student is found engaged in plagiarism for the first time, then his particular work in question (such as an experiment report, assignment, exercise or examination/test) will be awarded a mark of zero percent.  Where the case of repeated plagiarism is substantiated, the student's name will be forwarded to the University Disciplinary Committee via the Department Head, in additional to the penalty as stated above.

4. 4 Possible Penalty Outside Dept  If a student is found engaged in plagiarism even for the first time, his particular work in question will be awarded a mark of zero percent, and his name will be forwarded to the University Disciplinary Committee in additional to the penalty as stated above.

5. 5 How to Avoid Plagiarism  Re-write in your own words and acknowledge your sources of information  Clearly indicate what is copied (using separate paragraphs or quotation marks), and where it is copied (acknowledging your sources) Source of information: David Gardner, Plagiarism and How To Avoid It. The English Centre, The University of Hong Kong. http://ec.hku.hk/plagiarism/

6. 6 Latest Development  Some teachers have used the Turnitin (http://www.turnitin.com/) which is a worldwide recognized plagiarism detection software to online identify plagiarism cases.  Some teachers have used dedicated software to identify plagiarized programming works.  Our teaching assistants and demonstrators have paid attention to identify plagiarized lab reports and assignments.

7. 7 Latest Cases  17 students were found engaged in plagiarism in the 1st Year Project in 2005-06, they all got zero marks and failed the course.  2 students were found engaged in plagiarism in the 1st Year Project and 4 students in other courses in 2006-07.  One student engaged in plagiarism two times in 2005-06, and the Disciplinary Committee suspended his/her studies for 6 months.