1.1 What is Unacceptable Academic Practice?

1.  What in reality constitutes Unacceptable Academic Practice and what the examination staff will be looking for?

• In addition to the examples quoted in Section 2.2(iv) of the UAP Regulation, students should be aware of some of the things that have led to allegations of UAP being made against examination candidates :
• Notes written or printed onto small pieces of paper – typical ‘crib notes’.  This is the most common type of UAP.   Possession alone is enough, but students are often also caught consulting the crib notes;
• Notes written onto allowed ancillary equipment – rulers, pencil cases, spectacle cases, calculator covers or backs, writing tools, student ID cards;
• Notes written into permitted texts that students bring into the examination hall;
• Notes imprinted into ’white spaces’ or on the covers of permitted texts that students bring into the examination hall;
• Notes written on paper, turned-down page corners, or post-it notes which may be permitted in texts that students bring into the examination hall;  
• Notes written onto ‘body parts’ – most frequently hands, fingers and lower arms;
• Notes or numerical prompts written into the memory of a calculator;
• Possession in examination room of mobile telephones and other small electronic devices, including smart watches;
• Notes written into memory areas  of any kind on mobile telephones, iPods, iPads, smart watches or other small electronic devices (further information on electronic devices is below under point 3);
• Acronyms or aides memoir written or hidden on/in any of the above;
• Illegal electronic communication with other people outside examination hall;
• Unauthorised additional information on permitted photographs or images;
• Unauthorised additional information in/on permitted bibliographies;
• Unauthorised additional information on sheets of paper hidden within permitted texts;
• Unauthorised retention in the examination hall of ‘revision notes’ or ‘revision cards’;
• Notes secreted about the person and consulted in visits to toilets;
• Notes secreted in advance inside toilet cubicles;
• Unauthorised accessing of Internet during any examination;
• Entering exam room quickly, checking exam paper and then returning to cloakroom to consult notes before other candidates seated;
• Intercommunication between candidates, usually pairs or groups of co-examinees;
• Complete pre-written answers brought into examination and used to replace inner parts of examination booklets;
• Commencing writing in examination answer book prior to examination staff indicating that the examination is starting;
• Continuing writing in examination answer book after you have been told to stop writing at the end of the examination;
• Failing to follow verbal instructions given by examination staff, on any matter, but particularly in relation to the commencement and the termination of the examination;
  Impersonating another candidate.

 

University Invigilators are continuously and actively on the lookout for all of these.  Please note that this list of examples is not exclusive and any unauthorised materials or communications would be considered as UAP.