Academic integrity is very important in colleges and universities. Academic misconduct occurs when a student fails to comply with the specific academic guidelines provided by the academic institution. Academic misconduct can go on the permanent record and can affect your college application. Not only that, but it can also hamper your professional career. If you are a victim of academic misconduct, contact an academic misconduct attorney who can help you with your case.

History of academic misconduct

Academic misconduct charges o as early as the 1830s. Charles Babbage, also known as the “father of computing” described various forms of academic misconduct as ‘hoaxing’, ‘forging’, ‘trimming’ and ‘cooking’.

As understood today academic misconduct can be categorized into 3 types:

Academic misconduct itself
Research misconduct
Scientific misconduct

Actions categorized as academic misconduct

There are a large number of actions that come under academic misconduct. Most students who perform such actions claim they didn’t know what they were doing was wrong. Few examples of academic misconduct are:

Forging a school/college staff’s signature on any document
Using inappropriate and unauthorized means for examination
Posting, selling, or distributing lecture notes, exam answers drafted by a teacher or a professor
Using a teacher’s notes for commercial purposes
Submitting the same assignment for more than one course without the approval of the college authority.

Parts of Honor Code

Each school has its own specific honor code. The honor code statements in schools usually cover these:

Cheating: Behaviors that include copying from a peer’s test paper, plagiarism, collaboration without permission or cheat sheets all fall under academic misconduct.
Dishonesty: Deliberately deceiving a professor like intentionally missing a class comes under academic misconduct.
Stealing: Taking items that don’t belong to you without permission fall under academic misconduct.
Looking the other way: Actions like knowing about another student lying, cheating, or stealing and still not reporting fall under this category. In some institutions looking the other way also comes under the category of academic misconduct.

In the current times, no college or university can deny that academic misconduct is present in all academic institutions. Along with students, at times it also involves academic personnel. When a student intentionally commits academic misconduct, he/she violates the principles of the institution. An academic institution prosecutes academic misconduct charges against students as it helps to educate students to live with integrity. Ultimately, a student and his/her parents must understand that a case of academic misconduct can have a negative impact on his/her academic and professional careers.

To fight your academic misconduct case, contact attorney Joseph D. Lento and the Lento Law firm who has helped thousands of students to date to resolve academic misconduct cases.