To be annoyed that my university group have plagiarised on our group project?

[notmygroup]

We have a group project deadline at midnight, and I have just uploaded our final document onto our university's plagiarism software only for it to show that one group member has plagiarised their entire section. Her section is lit up like a Christmas tree with sentences and paragraphs directly copy and pasted from textbooks and papers.

I've rewritten her section and reuploaded it, and gently said to the group what the issue was (without naming names) and that they need to resubmit and they're annoyed that they are having to resubmit it so late in the evening.

I had finished my contribution to the project last week, and have been messaging my group all day asking for them to finalise it so it's not my fault that the plagiarism wasn't picked up until it was finally ready to be submitted this evening. If I hadn't noticed it I think we'd of all had our marks docked and probably had to have a meeting as we've been told very clearly what plagiarism is.

AIBU? I've encountered this in so many group projects, and feel so frustrated about it

I have just finished a MSc and the group project was the most hated part of the whole course. Even though we didn't have anyone copying or using chat GPT, it is not the way I prefer to work.

I would be LIVID and it's just as well you caught it. There are enough free checkers like Copyscape that there is no justification for laziness. I would also have no hesitation in shopping the cheating student to the tutor/lecturer.

Gosh that's horrible. They should be freaking grateful you saved their bacon. I would not work with them again on another project.

Ds has this in his second year and so the marks count toward his grade. He did exactly what the OP did and rewrote it because this kid had failed to turn up to their scheduled meetings etc so hadn't a clue what to write and so wrote some bullshit.

Luckily they all had to do a report and feedback on each other but half the group were not going to admit that Ds wrote a lot of it, had to teach them stuff they should have learned themselves it was a fucking mess and has brought his overall grade down. He is completely pissed but nothing you can do because you can't complain to the people about how these things are run and marked as they will be marking your final year work too. Well, hopefully, there are modules that haven't been marked from last academic year that the uni has just written off.

I don't think group work should be graded as a whole piece, there is always at least one in the group who is completely shit and rides on the grades of others.

@notmygroup I wouldn't protect them though, I would raise it with whoever you submitted it to with the original to compare against the one you wrote instead. I hate people who cheat like this.

They'll do it again unless you tell everyone!

I really don't know why they have them as part of degrees at all.

They are often required to gain accreditation from professional bodies.

Working effectively as part of a team is regarded as an essential skill.

I'm a member of staff in a University, who has plagiarism reviews/student disciplinaries as part of my job. This is a major issue - and you don't want to be accused of participating in it. In it's most serious forms, students can be removed from their course. I would go to the Course Leader, and ask to speak to them about your concerns. You need to be upfront, and this would be best to be flagged as soon as you can - and before anything inadvertent is picked up.

We had this once. We didn't need to put it through a checker the language was fully textbook and nothing like the context the presentation was meant to have.
We got to say how the marks were divided and the person in question agreed to a lower proportion. We rewrote her section entirely and she didn't turn up to the presentation. She dropped out at the end of the year. I do sometimes feel that I missed an opportunity to check she was alright.
I always try to be compassionate and hope that maybe they have found themselves out of their depth or has things going on I'm not aware of and not just a lazy so and so

Agreed. Group projects are a nightmare notion. When I was at uni years ago I was in a group of three with a girl who didn’t speak and a boy who either didn’t turn up or turned up drunk.

Exact same situation with one of my sons and it was a really important end of year project.

3 worked, 3 didn't get involved until the night it was being submitted and then claimed they had been excluded.

Fortunately my son had contacted the lecturer and flagged his concern a couple of days earlier, as advised by us. IRL you wouldn't ignore the possibility of a deadline being compromised

It was one of several nightmare projects but it does provide a steep learning curve that is maturing.

I’d discuss this with my tutor pronto, and state that I’m not happy to work with this cheat person ever again, and I’d explain why. Do you still have the original assignment as evidence?