Plagiarism involves both appropriating someone else’s work and passing it off as one’s own. It includes, but is not limited to, copying text directly from SAGMA study material without using own words, copying and pasting content from an online source or other without proper citation, paraphrasing someone else’s work without giving credit to the original author and without crediting the source of information or referencing source material. Plagiarism also involves presenting someone else’s written or creative work, such as words, images, ideas, etc., as your own.
Collusion can be deemed to be a form of plagiarism involving unauthorised cooperation between two or more people with deceptive intentions. This can take the form of two or more students producing a piece of work together, with only one intentionally passing it off as their own work and with the knowledge of the other.
SAGMA views cases of plagiarism or collusion by students very seriously and as a serious form of academic misconduct. Any student who intentionally plagiarises in any part of their progress questions, examination, or other written work threatens the values of academic work and undermines the credibility and integrity of SAGMA as a learning institution.
Plagiarism and/or collusion by a student discovered at any stage of the student’s course of study will be dealt with appropriately by the Training Committee and disciplinary may be instituted against the student and appropriate punishment meted out. Punishment may include but is not limited to a final written warning, failing the student for the progress question, examination, or any other written work. Students are therefore encouraged to familiarise themselves in detail with what constitutes plagiarism and avoid such acts by using correct citations, referencing, etc.