Fraud

Definition of fraud

Article 15 of the Examination Regulation.

Article 15 Fraud

15.1 By fraud is meant an act or omission by the student which partly or wholly hinders the forming of a correct assessment of his or her or someone else’s knowledge, insight and skills.

15.1a The following actions are considered to be fraud, though this is not a limitative list:

Having available during an examination – toilet visits included – at any other place than in a closed bag on the floor: texts, other data carriers or electronic devices; unless the use of them is explicitly allowed.
Having available during an examination: written notes in legislations, including any codes that may be hidden in underlining or marking.

reusing texts of others or generated by artificial intelligence in papers without mentioning the source

Presenting ideas which were developed by others as your own work.
In case of individual assignments: taking note of papers of other students that are applicable to the same assignment; in case of group assignments: taking note of papers of others students not part of the group.
The making available of papers to other students, including uploading papers to websites which are available to others, when it concerns an individual assignment for which the deadlines has not passed yet; in case of group assignments: the same applies when papers are made available to students that are not part of the group for the assignment.

15.2 When a suspicion of fraud arises during an examination, the student will in principle be allowed to finish the examination, provided it does not lead to disruption of the examination; in the case of disruption of the examination, the examiner can exclude the student from further participation in that examination.

15.3 The examiner must ensure that a report of the observed or suspected fraud is sent to the Board of Examiners immediately, with a copy to the student, within a reasonable period of time after the suspicion of fraud has been established.

15.4 The student may lodge an appeal against the exclusion with the Board of Examiners.

15.5 If a student commits fraud, the Board of Examiners can declare the obtained result of the course in question to be invalid, deprive that student of the right to participate in one or more examinations, to be determined by the Board of Examiners, during a period, also to be determined by the Board of Examiners of maximum one year. In cases of severe fraud, the Board of Examiners can request the Executive Board of the University to terminate the registration for the programme in question of said student indefinitely.

15.6 The Board of Examiners will not make its decision before the student and the examiner have been heard, or has at least given them the opportunity to be heard.

General

In cases of fraud during an examination, the examiner or invigilator is authorised to exclude the student in question from participation in the examination (articles 11.5 and 15 Examination Regulation). The examiner makes sure that a full report of the determined or suspected fraud will be sent to the Board of Examiners and that a copy of that report is sent to the student. If there is a serious suspicion of fraud, the examiner or invigilator has the right to inspect the student’s belongings which were brought into the examination room.

The Board of Examiners is authorised to pass judgement on students who are suspected to have committed fraud. The Board will invite the student for a hearing. Both the reporting examiner and the student will be given the opportunity to present their views on the matter.

The Board of Examiners will only decide after both student and examiner have been heard or at least they have been given the opportunity to be heard.

If the Board of Examiners determines that fraud was committed, the student can amongst others be excluded from participating in one or more examinations during a period to be set by the Board of Examiners, which can be a maximum of one year.

In cases of serious fraud, the Board of Examiners can request the Executive Board of the University to indefinitely revoke the registration for het programme fort his student (iudicium abeundi).

Appeal

The sanction decision of the Board of Examiners can be appealed at the CBE. This appeal can be submitted via www.rug.nl/clrs, within 6 weeks after the decision date.

Examples of fraud

Fraud case	Sanction
Student printed an empty examination from Nestor and used the standard answers to add to answers given on the examination sheet; this new examination sheet was handed in with the examiner at the post mortem with the sole purpose of getting a higher grade.	The examination in question was declared invalid, one year exclusion from participating in examinations
Student had brought four pages of case law to the examination while the first page of the examination clearly showed that this was not allowed.	The examination in question was declared invalid, the student was only allowed to take examinations to a maximum of 15 ECTS in the next semester
Student used a paper produced by another student in writing a paper.	The examination in question was declared invalid, exclusion of 10 ECTS.
Student circled certain letters in treaties in several places; together these letters formed the name of a case. All combined it enumerated to about 80% of the case law of the examination.	Examination was declared invalid, the student was excluded from taking the next regular examination, no possibility of an aberrant examination regulation and no exemptions till after the resit examination

No rights can be derived from this overview. The Board of Examiners will assess the merits of each case separately and will sanction accordingly.

Last update: 21-7-2023

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