At ESHCC, we highly value academic standards and academic integrity. Suspicions of fraud are therefor taken very seriously and dealt with in a systematic way. Specific information on what is defined as fraud, how the Examination Board deals with suspicions of fraud and the possible implications can be found below.
Fraud is understood to mean: Any acts or omissions of a student aimed at rendering it impossible, either wholly or in part, for the examiner or the Examination Board to make a proper assessment of the student’s knowledge, understanding and skills or of the knowledge, understanding and skills of fellow students.
The following are in any case considered as fraud:
- to appropriate the questions or assignments of an exam before the date or time on which the exam is scheduled;
- to pose as someone else during the exam or to have themselves represented by someone else at the exam;
- to consult or have within reach books, workbooks, notes or other sources of information of which the use is not explicitly permitted during the exam;
- not turning off and/or having within reach mobile phones, smartphones and watches and other devices which can connect to the internet or carrying these devices with you during a toilet visit, while taking an exam;
- to consult with the exams of other students during the exam or to exchange information with them in any way either inside or outside of the exam room. Providing others the opportunity to commit fraud will also be rebuked as fraud;
- to submit a paper, in return for payment or not, that was (partly) written by another person or by Artificial Intelligence software;
- to amend already handed in exams during the inspection afterwards;
- to commit (self)plagiarism, in this context also understood to mean to copy from their own or someone else's work an extract larger than a couple of words literally or translated for the purpose of a paper, thesis or any other form of text being part of the teaching without indicating this by means of quotation marks or another univocal typographic means, and without including bibliographically traceable and correct acknowledgements.
For online proctored exams or take-home exams, the following activities are also considered fraud:
- use of someone else’s ID or student card;
- use or attempted use of unpermitted sources and resources, such as internet, mobile phone;
- the omission or improper performance of the room scan;
- the student is no longer in sight of the webcam and/or has switched off the microphone, while taking the exam, insofar this takes place outside the (possible) authorized breaks;
- (attempted) technical modifications that undermine the proctor system;
- reaching out – through any means – to fellow students during the exam.
- An invigilator, proctor or examiner suspects that a student committed fraud and reports the suspicion to the Examination Board with any evidence available.
- The Examination Board investigates the suspicion of fraud by looking into the reported evidence and by starting an additional investigation.
- The Examination Board invites the student to respond to the suspicion of fraud either in writing or in a conversation with the Examination Board member.
- The students will receive minutes of the conversation with the Examination Board.
- The Examination Board formulates a decision and decides whether or not a sanction will be imposed.
It may take up to six weeks before the Examination Board comes to a decision regarding a suspicion of fraud. The Examination Board investigates every case thoroughly and objectively, which can be time-consuming. Students will be contacted by the Examination Board, they do not have to contact the Examination Board themselves.
Case files are confidential and only the course coordinator/examiner involved and the student advisor are informed of the suspicion of fraud as well as the outcome of the investigation.
When the Examination Board comes to the conclusion that a student committed fraud, the Examination Board may impose a sanction on the student, including in any case the following:
- reprimand;
- nullification of the assignment, paper or thesis concerned;
- nullification of the exam concerned;
- exclusion from the exam concerned for a period of one year at most;
- exclusion from one or more exam rounds;
- exclusion from handing in the thesis for a period of one year at most;
- a combination of the above measures;
- proposal to the Executive Board to definitively end the registration for the program concerned.
The sanction will depend on the gravity of the committed fraud and whether a student committed fraud before.
If fraud or plagiarism is detected in a group assignment, all members of the group will be held accountable. Every member of the group is required to show evidence that proves their innocence.
The Examination Board is authorized to declare test results invalid in case irregularities prove to have occurred during an exam that make it impossible to consider the exam results as a valid and reliable indicator of students’ skills.
Students may submit an appeal to the Examination Board’s decision with the EUR Board of Appeal for Examinations within six weeks upon receiving said decision.