Academic Integrity and Academic Misconduct

Higher education is all about discovery, honing your creative voice, and engaging in honest scholarship. At Central Film School (CFS), academic integrity is built on core values: honesty, trust, fairness, respect, and responsibility.

Whether you are writing an essay, pitching a project, or working on set, maintaining these standards ensures your qualifications carry real weight in the creative industries. Here is what you need to know about upholding academic integrity and how the School handles academic misconduct.

What is Academic Integrity?

Simply put, academic integrity means being honest and ethical in all the work you submit and the processes you engage in. It applies to both formative and summative assessments across all formats, including:

Essays, reports, and dissertations
Designs, prints, images, and visual materials
Performances and presentations
Film projects, artefacts, and computer programs
Research methodology, ethics, and extenuating circumstances claims

The Four Pillars of Your Work

To comply with CFS standards, every piece of work you submit must be:

Correctly and fully referenced: Every external idea, quote, image, or concept must be properly cited in the text and bibliography using standard referencing styles. Failing to do this is considered plagiarism.
Produced by you, and only you: While film production is inherently collaborative, work submitted for individual assessment must clearly reflect your own distinct contribution. Crossing these boundaries without permission is known as collusion or commissioning.
Original and unique: You cannot submit work that you have previously submitted for another assessment, either in whole or in part. Re-using your own past work is known as duplication (or self-plagiarism).
Honest and trustworthy: Any research or data represented in your projects must be true, factual, and gathered through fair and ethical means. Altering or inventing data is known as misrepresentation.

Defining Academic Misconduct

Academic misconduct covers any action that gives, or attempts to give, an unfair advantage in an assessment or undermines scholarship integrity.

Key forms of misconduct include:

Plagiarism: Unacknowledged use of another person’s work or creative ideas.
Collusion: Authoring work with others without authorization, letting someone copy your work, or using Generative AI to produce significant volume of content alongside your own work.
Commissioning (Contract Cheating / AI Use): Paying a third party (like an essay mill, friend, or relative) or using online platforms/AI tools to generate or edit work on your behalf.
Duplication: Resubmitting work you previously completed, including when retaking modules.
Misrepresentation: Falsifying or omitting research data or making false statements.

Note on Intent: An allegation of academic misconduct will not be dismissed simply because it was committed unintentionally. It is your responsibility to understand and apply proper academic practices.

How Misconduct is Detected and Investigated

CFS uses several methods to check the authenticity of student work, including active online searches, profile consistency reviews, and plagiarism and generative AI detection software integrated with Google Classroom.

The Academic Team may also conduct Academic Integrity Vivas, which are exploratory discussions where you demonstrate your authorship and understanding of the submission.

If a concern arises, investigations follow a two-stage process as described in the full procedure here.

Where to Find Help

If you are struggling with workload or assessment stress, do not resort to shortcuts. You can get advice on referencing, study skills, and stress management directly from the Academic Team. If personal circumstances affect your studies, access the Mitigating Circumstances Process or reach out to the Quality & Registry Team for advice.