COPYING THE work of others has emerged as the main reason for university students in Dundee facing formal disciplinary action.

As well as plagiarism, reprimands have been issued in the last year for drug possession, fake documentation and even an incident involving a gun.

Details of campus indiscretions were provided under Freedom of Information after it emerged that almost 2000 students across the UK were reprimanded in 12 months.

Abertay University revealed full details of incidents dealt with by academic authorities, while Dundee University provided a more limited response.

Abertay, which has more than 5000 students, most of them in Dundee, said that there had been 75 cases between 2005 and 2007 in which formal disciplinary action, including warnings, was taken against a student.

An incident-by-incident breakdown for last year showed that, of the 27 cases addressed by the authorities, 18 involved plagiarism by students.

One student withdrew before disciplinary action was taken, but was told that he would otherwise have been expelled and barred from readmission “without limit of time.”

Others received severe reprimands and had coursework, units or modules cancelled. In one case a student had to write a letter of apology to a peer he put at risk of disciplinary action.

The university also issued a written warning to a student charged with cocaine possession, levied a £100 fine for theft and handed out a severe reprimand for “fabrication and doubt of authenticity of data.”

In late November two students received severe reprimands for disorderly behaviour involving a BB gun, an incident which resulted in police being called.

Both of them—one of whom had also maliciously used a fire extinguisher—were also barred from university halls of residence as a resident or visitor for the duration of their studies.

A spokesman for Abertay said, “Around 0.5% of our students are subject to disciplinary action in any one year, the vast majority of these being for plagiarism and cheating.

“But even though the numbers are small, we operate a zero tolerance policy against all breaches of our student code of conduct.”

Dundee University, which caters for around 18,000 students, said a total of four cases had been dealt with by its Senatus Academicus—the ultimate forum for student discipline— between 2005 and 2007.

There were two misconduct cases last year, both brought as a result of criminal proceedings. In each case the student concerned was expelled.

It is understood that a range of “informal” warnings—lower down the disciplinary scale—were given to students over the three-year period, but no further details were available.

According to national figures, some 1836 students were given warnings for unacceptable behaviour at 70 universities in a year, while 56 were expelled.