Tilburg University

Fraud, plagiarism, and AI use Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences (TSHD) Within the Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences, we place great value on academic integrity. This means that you must always work honestly and independently. With the rise of AI tools, it is more important than ever to know what is and is not permitted. Use of AI in exams and assignments AI tools are increasingly being used in education. At our School, the following principle applies: The use of AI is not permitted unless a lecturer explicitly states otherwise. This applies to exams, tests, and assignments. Therefore, always submit your own work and be careful and transparent in your use of tools. To provide clarity, lecturers may refer to the AI Index for students in assignments. This document describes for what purposes and in what ways you may possibly use AI. Always read the lecturer’s instructions carefully before using AI tools and consult your lecturer if you are unsure whether a tool is allowed.

Collected: 2026-10-08 · 28–34
SHA-256: 2d02717639a033430c2cda71520e6265ecd058b159da00d86cd337788499279a

Look critically at input as well as output It is essential to remain critical and careful with input and output, especially in situations where accuracy is essential. The following principles should be observed when using GenAI: Only use your Tilburg University email address for business (AI) purposes and limit it to work-related matters. Use only publicly available or published university data in GenAI. Do not enter personal data, confidential or business-sensitive information or research data because it may be stored, reused, or processed, posing privacy and confidentiality risks. If confidential or personal information has been shared with GenAI, please report it via the report button on the Privacy & Security Portal. Timely notification ensures that action can be taken quickly. Please adhere to the Privacy & Data Protection Policy and the Tilburg University Information Security Policy. A lot of GenAI does not comply with European or Dutch regulations, in part because data are stored outside the European Economic Area (EEA). Do not use GenAI for illegal, fraudulent activities or violations of University policies (see IT Code of Conduct and Conduct Rules) and never disseminate misleading information. Carefully verify generated information before using or distributing it. Do not blindly rely on GenAI output. Turn on additional risk-avoidance features A GenAI tool can provide options to reduce the risk of data loss. We recommend using these features, such as: The option to exclude data from model training. Then the data you enter will not be used to further train the AI model. This reduces the risk of storing or sharing confidential data. Features such as "Enterprise Data Protection," often provide encryption, enhanced access control, and compliance with regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). It makes data processing more secure by implementing specific security measures, such as data restriction and auditing. Avoid entering sensitive or confidential information even when risk mitigation features are enabled While these measures reduce risk, critical and deliberate use remains essential. Avoid entering sensitive or confidential information even when risk mitigation features are enabled because: There are no guarantees, data can still be temporarily stored or accessed by third parties, depending on the provider's policies and infrastructure. Even with security options, data can be processed outside the European Economic Area (EEA), which is in violation of the GDPR that we, as Tilburg University, must comply with. Do you want to use GenAI precisely for processing sensitive information? If so, it is important that the tool you are going to use has been pre-assessed for privacy and information security risks. To do so, follow the regular software procurement process through your Division or School's information manager.

Collected: 2026-10-08 · 46–62
SHA-256: 196f1b4f2195632a762b5fb0f6e70d29c528d18c7eded02cf75d1624c2617e9f

Published: 07th February 2025 Last updated: 29th September 2025

Collected: 2026-10-08 · 32–35
SHA-256: 196f1b4f2195632a762b5fb0f6e70d29c528d18c7eded02cf75d1624c2617e9f

When is it considered fraud? Fraud is defined as the actions or omissions of an examinee that make it wholly or partially impossible to accurately assess the knowledge, understanding, and skills of the examinee, or of a fellow examinee. This includes, among other things: Plagiarism: copying work (text segments, reasoning, or ideas) from someone else without proper citation. Using unauthorized tools during tests or exams. Manipulating research data. Submitting work that is (partially) generated by AI without permission. In Chapter 5 of the Rules and Guidelines, you will find a complete overview of what is considered fraud and how the procedure is conducted. Suspicion and assessment of fraud When a lecturer suspects fraud, including unauthorized use of AI, they are required to report it to the Examination Board. The Examination Board then carefully assesses the situation and determines whether fraud has indeed occurred. The Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences use plagiarism detection software and may also employ other methods to identify unauthorized use of AI. Consequences and sanctions The consequences of fraud are sometimes underestimated but can be significant. When fraud is confirmed, the Examination Board may impose sanctions. In Chapter 5 of the Rules and Guidelines, you will find a complete overview of the possible sanctions. The most common sanctions are: Invalidation of an exam or thesis, including the withdrawal of the obtained grade. Exclusion (possibly retroactively) from one or more partial tests or exams. These sanctions can have direct consequences for your academic progress. Questions or doubts? Are you unsure whether the use of AI is allowed in your assignment, or do you have questions about fraud and plagiarism? Always consult the course description and assignment instructions, and if in doubt, contact your lecturer before deciding to use a tool or submit an assignment. For general questions about fraud and plagiarism, you can refer to the TiU-wide page What is Fraud? | Tilburg University. This page also provides more information about fraud, possible sanctions, and tips for preventing fraud and plagiarism.

Collected: 2026-10-08 · 36–53
SHA-256: 2d02717639a033430c2cda71520e6265ecd058b159da00d86cd337788499279a

If examiners or invigilators notice someone cheating during an examination, they make a note of it on the work after it has been handed in and they also confiscate any pieces of evidence. After the examination, the examiners or invigilators write a report for the school examining board. In the case of plagiarism, the lecturer involved will notify this fact to the examining board. The type of punishment students can expect, if they plagiarize something or cheat, depends on the seriousness of the misconduct. The examining board can impose one or more of the following measures: In all cases: the examination involved is declared invalid; The examinee is excluded from up to five specified examination opportunities. In doing so, the examining board takes the stage reached in the examinees course of study into account; If there is fraud involved in writing up a bachelor or master thesis, a new thesis will have to be written. As soon as the examining board has decided on appropriate sanctions, the student involved is informed in writing of the decision. If the student does not agree with the imposed punishment, he or she can appeal in writing to the Commission of Appeal for Examinations. In addition to the rules made for the whole university, individual faculties have their own supplementary rules and measures for dealing with cheating and plagiarism. Please consult the websites of the schools.

Collected: 2026-10-08 · 28–34
SHA-256: 4db1d616aadd4d1dc1df6b9c2c81314698ceba0299e518c7291c459ac4aa6b4b

Every university has an Examination Appeals Board (EAB: CBE in Dutch). Students can appeal to this EAB against certain decisions, for example decisions about exemptions, binding study advice, fraud, and examinations. Directly lodge an appeal at the EAB Article 7.61 of the Higher Education and Research Act (HERA (Dutch only)) provides a list of decisions that students can appeal against to the EAB. This may include: decisions by an Examining Board regarding whether or not to grant an exemption; decisions regarding the binding study advice; decisions regarding fraud; decisions regarding examination results, admission to examinations, additional examination opportunities. (Note: You cannot appeal the result of a subtest. Only the final grade for the course). the result of the colloquium doctum examination. Usually, at the end of the decision you received, it says that you can appeal to the EAB. Check the webpage Jurisprudence and annual reports EAB for additional information. How does the procedure work? The appeal Within six weeks after the decision that you are appealing against was made, the notice of appeal must have been received by the EAB via OSIRIS. You will receive a confirmation of receipt. In the notice of appeal, you indicate which decision you are appealing against and on which grounds. If an error is made with regard to the form of the notice of appeal or if you did not attach a copy of the decision against which you are appealing, the EAB will inform you of this. You will then be given the opportunity to rectify this omission within a certain period of time. Amicable Settlement Before the appeal is officially processed, it is first examined whether an amicable settlement is possible. The EAB forwards the appeal to the Examination Board of your program* and asks it to check whether an amicable settlement is possible. The Examination Board will contact you within three weeks. It is then the intention to carefully examine whether the facts on which the Examination Board based its decision are correct and whether the justification is correct. You can discuss together whether a solution can still be found. Subsequently, the Examination Board will inform the EAB whether an amicable settlement has been reached. * In most cases, the Examination Board is the one who made the decision you are appealing against. In a few cases, it is a decision of another person or committee. In that case, the same procedure applies.

Collected: 2026-10-08 · 27–42
SHA-256: 559d8bc509cdcf4935791b04cbe3d0ac9bda9b11481525fd451161f87ec9fdf9

I need more time to file my appeal. Is that possible? If you need more than six weeks to properly substantiate the arguments for your appeal, for example because you want to obtain advice first, a 'pro forma' appeal can be submitted. In a pro forma appeal, you announce that you are appealing and what decision you are appealing against, but you do not yet indicate the grounds for your appeal. In this way you can avoid exceeding the appeal period. You can submit a pro forma appeal both via the online system (if you have a student number) and by letter or e-mail. You will be told by the EAB within which period - generally within 14 days - the grounds for the appeal must be sent.

Collected: 2026-10-08 · 65–68
SHA-256: 559d8bc509cdcf4935791b04cbe3d0ac9bda9b11481525fd451161f87ec9fdf9

Do I need an account to access Tilly? You can log on to Tilly with your Tilburg University account, so you do not need an extra account. Tilly can be used by all employees and students free of charge. Tilly can also be used during workshops with external participants by means of a QR code. Do you need help? Please contact the Tilly Support team at [email protected]. Go directly to Tilly What can I use Tilly for? Tilly is available for Tilburg University as a whole: students, instructors, researchers, and support staff. What you can use Tilly for depends on your role. As an instructor, you can use Tilly in lots of different ways for educational purposes. For instance, you can let Tilly answer questions by students on the course material in Canvas. You can set up Tilly to generate test questions to help students prepare for exams or give them hints if they get stuck. You can also use Tilly to, for instance, help students practice certain skills, including negotiating or presenting arguments. Within the Tilly Academy, you can find more examples of how other instructors use Tilly for their courses. For research, Tilly also offers opportunities, including finding relevant literature, summarizing articles, as an aid to coding, as a sparring partner during a brainstorm, or to assist with writing or translation – also if personal data need to be processed. The same also goes for business operations, whereby the functionality ‘Upload file’ also allows you to work safely with internal documents.

Collected: 2026-10-08 · 41–48
SHA-256: 97c3942de61bb4e63c13efce482c2a1450c9e06fca25ea5a45ab59394ed1731d

What happens with data/documents that I upload? Tilly is hosted in European datacenters, operates under Tilburg University’s agreements with Microsoft, and is managed by our Library and IT Services (LIS) with strict access checks. There is continuous monitoring for any misuse in the context of cybersecurity. The data and documents you upload will only be used for the purpose for which you submit them. They are not used to train the underlying language models. You can remove earlier dialogues and uploaded content/data at any time. In addition, chats are automatically removed after a limited period (30 days, at the moment). And you don't have to worry about backups floating around somewhere. Data collection within the platform itself is set up in such a way that it is minimal and purpose-oriented (for instance, to allow services to function, guarantee security, and improve quality). Where user statistics are shown to builders of chatbots for shared use, they are presented in aggregated form (a summarizing line per chat and the number of messages sent by chatbot users). As a default setting, the builder of a chatbot (for instance, an instructor) cannot see the chats of individual users. However, there is now an opt-in feature "Share with creator", whereby students themselves can opt to share a specific chat with the builder of the chatbot. Instructors see those shared chats in a tab on their dashboard. The idea behind this function is to make the instructor part of the learning process (“teacher in the loop”) and stimulate the conversation on the quality of AI answers, for instance, by discussing such a chat in class. It is important that sharing remains the students’ active choice. Without their explicit permission, chats remain private.

Collected: 2026-10-08 · 82–88
SHA-256: 97c3942de61bb4e63c13efce482c2a1450c9e06fca25ea5a45ab59394ed1731d