School of Physical Sciences & Computing

Monday, 11 May 2020

Derek Ward-Thompson
Naga Viswanadhuni Head of School
NVSViswanadhuni@uclan.ac.uk University of Central Lancashire
Student ID: G20765073
Preston PR1 2HE
Tel: (Office) 01772 891994
email: CandTHub@uclan.ac.uk
Dear Naga - www.uclan.ac.uk
Re: Course: Master of Science in Computing
Module: CO4808

Present at meeting:
Chair of Investigation Panel: Danielle Bewsher, School of Physical Sciences and Computing
Module Leader: Matt Horton, School of Physical Sciences and Computing
Notes: Sheridan Rawlings, Business Support Assistant, C&T Hub
Student: Naga Viswanadhuni

Thank you for meeting with me in my role as Chair of the Investigation Panel, together with those noted as present
above. You agreed that you have had the opportunity to seek advice from the University Student Advice Centre.
You were happy to proceed with the panel investigation with the people present and accepted impartiality of the
panel.

We reviewed the University Academic Regulations for Taught courses (2019/2020) on ‘unfair means to enhance
performance’, during the meeting. We then explored allegations of unfair means for the assessment for the above
module.

Section A Presentation of Findings

This was being heard under the Assessment Handbook definition of Plagiarism (section 6.5.1.2). We then heard
from the Module Tutor who turned our attention to the Turnitin report for your assignment, which showed a match
of 65%. The matched text mainly came from two separate documents. The Module Tutor then pointed out that
section 4.2 ‘History of eShopping’ was copied and not cited. Section 4.7 was copied from the first source on the
listed on the Turnitin report with no citation. I looked at the references you had included in your paper and none of
them corelated to the copied text throughout the paper. I asked you how you went about doing your project and you
responded that you looked online to get knowledge and then prepared the rest on your own. You thought you had
paraphrased. You said that you had plagiarised unintentionally. When asked, you confirmed that you had attended
classes that discussed how to cite and reference within an academic paper. I then asked you why you did not
reference, and you responded that you had not been feeling well and it had not been your intention to plagiarise.
The Module Tutor then said that you should have used your own testing and source code, but as this is one of the
plagiarised sections, you did not do the actual work necessary for the project either.

Section B Student response

You told us that you had suffered a burn on your face from a cooking accident and showed us a photograph of a
smallish burn on your face. You said that you did not apply for Extenuating Circumstances at the time because of
this burn, but also because you did not think you could extend your visa, which runs out at the end of May.

Section C Summary of findings and Outcome of panel deliberation

You have been found guilty of Plagiarism (section 6.5.1.2). You have plagiarised by copying chinks of text from
other sources without citing or referencing them. I acknowledge that you had a painful injury, but I do not believe
that it allows for you to plagiarise. I explained to you that this was not the right thing to do, and based my decision
on the University’s Academic Regulations and academic good practise.

This is a single offence of unfair means in an undergraduate or postgraduate taught element of assessment and
so the appropriate penalty will be 0% for this element of assessment, and an overall fail for the module. The
affected elements of the assessment must be resubmitted to the required standard. The mark for the module
following resubmission will be restricted to the minimum pass mark 50%. You are to liaise with your Module Tutor
for instruction on the resubmission. A G1 flag will be on your transcript for this module.

You will be asked to attend a group session with the academic coach who will provide support and guidance on
how to avoid unfair means in the future.

You are also advised to utilise guidance available within the Student Handbook on study skills and referencing and
use of WISER study sessions on referencing.

If you wish to appeal against this decision under stage one of the academic process this needs to be made in writing
with evidence for the grounds of your appeal to the Chair of the Assessment Board within 14 days of our meeting.
Please review The Academic Regulations for taught courses 2019/20 and the Assessment Handbook section 7
‘Procedure for Academic Appeals’ available on the website.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if needing clarification of any of the above. I wish you well in the future and in
your future study.

Yours sincerely

Danielle Bewsher
Principal Lecturer
On behalf of the Chair of the Assessment Board

CC – Unfair Means Student File

Electronic Student File

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