Pursuant to Article 34 of the Statute of the International School, at the meeting held on the 09.07.2021., the Board of International School adopted the following:

Academic Honesty Policy

Basic Provisions

Article 1

Academic integrity is an ethical code, whereby the student guarantees that all work submitted is the student’s own work.

Academic honesty is a key to teaching and learning and is essential for the students’ academic integrity and teacher’s professional ethics.

Plagiarism is the use of ideas, sentences and standpoints of other authors, unknowingly or intentionally, in your own work, without adequate reference to the title of the work or the name of the author.

Collusion is the unauthorised collaboration on assessable work (written, oral or practical) with other people or letting other people submit your work as their own.

Duplication of work is submitting the same work for different subjects or examination components.

Academic misconduct is a behaviour that might result in gaining unfair advantage in the assessment, which includes, but is not limited to: possession of unauthorised items during assessment or examination, submitting plagiarised or duplicated work, collusion, fabrication of data etc.

To maintain academic honesty, students are forbidden to:

• submit work of any kind that is not their own work;
• plagiarise in any work (written, multimedia, oral, creative, etc.);
• post assessments, assignments, answers to assessments or assignments, or any other curricular materials on any media that can be seen by other students or other third parties;
• possess and/or use any unauthorised items during assessment or examination;
• give or receive unauthorized assistance on assessments;
• present the same work for different subjects or examination components;
• present any forged documents to their teacher.

In order to help students maintain academic honesty, mentors, tutors, parents or other third parties must not give assistance on assessments or during an assessed coursework. School’s Code of Conduct applies if the student does not comply with the paragraph 6 of this Article. Examination material or examination components for the final international exams that are not in compliance with this Article will not be taken into consideration. This might result in the student failing the exam(s) or suspension.

The International School strives to raise principled students, who behave in compliance with the moral principles. By presenting students’ and employees’ responsibilities and the consequences of their actions, we empower our students to be trustworthy, fair, honest and respectful towards others, as well as towards themselves.

The responsibilities of the International School and teachers

Article 2

In order to establish and maintain ethical culture and a common trust in the school community, the pedagogical leadership team will:

• Establish Academic Honesty Policy;
• Ensure that all teachers, legal guardians and students are aware of the content and implications of the Academic Honesty Policy;
• Implement adequate measures for the academic dishonesty;
• Establish an ethical environment for teaching and learning;
• In cases of examination work, report any form of academic misconduct to the international examination organisation.

Teachers have a key role in helping students understand the fundamentals of academic honesty. The teachers of the International School will:

• Present the concept of plagiarism, collusion and academic misconduct to students;
• Provide guidance on the correct paraphrasing, citing and referencing (Harvard referencing style);
• Refer to school administration if they suspect on any form of academic misconduct;
• Use plagiarism scanners when assessing students’ work (PlagScan or Turnitin);
• Conduct in compliance with the examination guides and familiarise the students with the examination requirements if they act as invigilators;
• Be a role model of academic honesty.

The teacher is forbidden to:

• Conducts research instead of students;
• Make any part of the examination assignment instead of the student;
• Correct or improve the work of the student after the student submits the work.

In order to establish students’ responsibility and academic integrity, teachers are allowed to:

• Ask students to sign a declaration of authenticity;
• Ask students to provide notes, work that was referenced or any piece of evidence that might indicate the authenticity of the student’s work.

The responsibilities of the students

Article 3

Students are responsible for maintaining academic integrity and honesty. The students will:

• Read and acknowledge the Academic Honesty Policy;
• Report other students’ academic dishonesty to the teachers or the school administration;
• Maintain true and honest about their work and learning;
• Avoid plagiarism, collusion or any other form of academic misconduct;
• Properly cite, reference, paraphrase or quote other authors’ work using Harvard referencing style;
• Avoid giving or receiving assistance in completing their work;
• Be responsible towards other people’s work;
• Act in compliance with the invigilator’s instructions during their exams.

Students are not allowed to:

• Copy, transcribe or otherwise use the works and / or parts of other students’ works in their assignments;
• Present, copy and distribute school teaching materials to third parties;
• Present, copy and share school assignments with third parties;
• Copy and share homework, project or exam assignments with third parties;
• Use other people’s copyrighted works without approval or without adequate reference to the title of the work and the name of the author;
• Share examination materials during their exams (such as calculators or dictionaries).

Students have the right to:

• Receive feedback on the quality of work and guidelines for improvement, unless it is an examination component;
• Request an extension of the deadline required for the preparation of a homework or project assignment if they are justifiably prevented;
• Lodge a complaint with the subject teacher if they are not satisfied with the evaluation, except in the case of an examination component, when the evaluation is conducted in accordance with the international examination organisation’s regulations.

Responsibilities of the parents and legal guardians

Article 4

Parents and legal guardians play an important role in the students’ learning process.

Parents / guardians are expected to:

• Monitor the preparation of schoolwork, homework, exam and project assignments through an electronic diary, platform and e-mail notifications on a weekly basis;
• Encourage the development of the abovementioned assignments;
• Help organize the time needed to complete homework, exams and project assignments;
• Support the school in the realisation of the principles of work which imply that all homework and project assignments are done in the school in the allotted time;
• Avoid helping students in completion of their assignments;
• Get in touch with the subject teacher, if there are justified reasons for extending the deadline required for the preparation of homework, exam or project assignment;
• Encourage the request for additional help from the subject teacher if there is a need for it.

Consequences of the academic dishonesty

Article 5

The purpose of maintaining academic honesty is to teach students how to be responsible, trustworthy and honest. The purpose of implementing adequate measures for academic dishonesty is not a punishment, but a pedagogical measure that should help students become active learners and responsible people.

If a teacher suspects any form of academic misconduct, a student is held responsible and should provide evidence to support the authenticity of his/her work.

If the academic dishonesty is determined after careful analysis of the student’s work and the provided evidence, the teacher has the right to refuse accepting student’s work and give the student the grade U. Exam assignments or components that contain elements of plagiarism will not be taken into consideration, which may result in the student failing the exam. In this case, parents and/or legal guardians will be informed and the School’s Code of Conduct will apply.

Teachers may allow the resubmission of the student’s work at their discretion.

If a student’s academic honesty in completion of exam assignment or component is suspected upon the submission to the international examination organisation, the international examination organisation has the right to investigate the academic misconduct, which might result in the student failing the exam or forbidding the student from sitting that exam.

Final Provisions

Article 6

The Academic Honesty Policy is developed by the Academic Honesty Policy Committee:

• Ljubica Krstić – Head of Social Sciences and Humanities Department;
• Ana Vlašić – Head of STEAM Department;
• Tatjana Koluvija – Diploma Programme Core Coordinator;
• Zorana Živanović – Programme Coordinator.

The Academic Honesty Policy will come into force on the eighth day following their posting on the School’s notice board.

The teaching staff, the International School’s Coordinators, the School Principal and the Board will collaboratively review this Policy in August 2022, on which they will report to parents and students through an official email in September of the same year.

President of the Board

_____________________________

Nikola Subotić