Chair's statement on dealing with plagiarism in written examinations

What is plagiarism?

Plagiarism occurs when someone else's intellectual achievements are passed off as one's own, e.g. when the author adopts ideas, thoughts, arguments, presentations or organizational structures, etc. from others into his/her own work without indicating that what has been adopted does not originate from him/her. Plagiarism violates the guidelines of good scientific practice and constitutes an attempt to deceive, insofar as the author pretends to have produced his/her own work without actually having done so. Plagiarism can take various forms, e.g:

• the verbatim or almost verbatim copying of texts or parts of texts from other people's work without labeling them as quotations and citing the source
• paraphrasing texts or parts of texts from other people's work without labeling them as a copy and citing the source
• copying non-textual elements from the work of others, e.g. diagrams, images, the structure, the bibliography or list of references or even individual references and sources
• the translation of foreign-language texts or parts of texts by others without their identification
• submitting a piece of work that has already been submitted in whole or in part as a piece of work in another course, whereby it is specified that it is a new piece of work.

What are the penalties for plagiarism?

If it is suspected that a piece of work has been plagiarized in whole or in part, the examiner is obliged to report their suspicions to the Examination Committee and give reasons. If the Examination Committee comes to the conclusion that plagiarism has occurred, the student will be informed of this decision in an official notification and informed that the examination has been failed. In the event of a repeat offense and in particularly serious cases, the student may also be excluded from taking further examinations and may be de-registered as a result. In addition, any attempt to cheat will be listed on the grade certificate.