Université de Mons

The Fight against Plagiarism at UMONS

The University of Mons actively fights against plagiarism as part of its teachings. This applies not only to dissertations, theses and placement reports, but also to exams through plagiarism detection software. Any work submitted on Moodle is therefore automatically undergoes this detection. Teachers then have specific reports to identify potential sources of plagiarism from the Internet that students may use in their work.

Teachers can access this tool's user mannual online.

Scientific and academic staff also use this tool for their research. Direct access to the detection service can be requested from the SAP (rudy.potdevin@umons.ac.be - +32 (0)65 373232).

An anti-plagiarism group has also been set up to monitor the various measures put in place to raise awareness within the academic world and to combat plagiarism. Its missions include:

Awareness-raising website for students and teachers
Annual reminders of the measures in place sent to students by email
Annual training courses for teachers and one-time training for students
Detection tool

Board Policy and Examination Regulations

To recap, here is what the Examination Regulations specfies with regard to plagiarism:

Décision CA49/XIII du Conseil d'administration du 2 juin 2014

Section I - Point E: PLAGIARISM

Article 46. - University education has a duty to promote intellectual honesty. Like cheating and other fraudulent practices, plagiarism is considered a breach of these Regulations. Plagiarism is defined by the act of taking the work of others, for example, paragraphs, sentences, illustrations, ideas, findings, conclusions, algorithms and programmes, to use as one’s own work without properly and explicitly identifying the real source(s). During the assessment of a personal assignment (for example, a project, dissertation or thesis), if a student is convicted of such offense, the Board concerned shall notify them of the refusal of their work. The Board also immediately notifies the Dean. In addition to this first measure, and after hearing the student, the Dean may propose to the Rector to impose the penalties set out in Article 34, depending on the circumstances and possible recurrence. If the breach is discovered after the assessment, the Rector may impose these penalties or refer the case to the Board concerned.

Article 34. - Any suspicion of cheating is immediately communicated in writing to the Dean. The Dean will summon the student(s) concerned so that they can present a defence. If cheating has been proven, the Dean informs the Chairperson of the Board. On the day of deliberation (the day the Board meets if the cheating happened during the January assessment period), the Board decides if the cheating of the student(s) concerned is taken into consideration or not. If taken into account, the Board will give 0/20 as a grade for the examination in question, or for all of the examinations taken, and may propose to the Rector (at a Board of Directors meeting in the event of exclusion) one of the academic penalties, as listed in Article 60 of the Law of 28th April 1953, namely:

A caution
Suspension from classes, labs and seminars, in whole or in part, for a period of up to one month
Suspension from the University, or from one class, lab or seminar, for a period of more than one month but not more than one academic year
Exclusion.

The Board's decision is justified and is the ncommunicated to the student.

Plagiarism, Copyright and Intellectual Property for Teachers and Researchers

Presentation materials (in French) for the workshop "Plagiarism, copyright and intellectual property for teachers and researchers" organised at UMONS on 31/01/2014 and 26/05/2015.

Preventing plagiarism among our students

If you have any questions or need advice regarding plagiarism, please do not hesitate to contact the SAP: SAP-Enseignants@umons.ac.be.