The Oxford Concise Dictionary, 9 ed., (1995: 1043) defines plagiarism as ‘the act or instance of plagiarizing, something plagiarized.’ The dictionary then defines plagiarize as ‘take and use (the thoughts, writings, inventions, and so forth of another person) as one’s own; pass off the thoughts, and so forth of (another person) as one’s own.’
This includes but is not limited to, copying text from published sources, paraphrasing or summarizing without proper citation, submitting work done by someone else or generated by AI tools as one's own, and submitting work that has been previously submitted for credit.
Plagiarism is regarded as a cardinal offense in academia because it constitutes theft of the work of someone else, which is then purported as the original work of the plagiarist. Plagiarism draws into disrepute the credibility of the Institution, its faculty, and students; therefore, it is not tolerated.