Plagiarism—appropriating someone else’s work (a text in whole or in part, an image, photograph or data) and either not attributing it or claiming it as one’s own—is theft.
A person guilty of plagiarism in an individual work or dissertation, for example, proves neither skills nor master of a subject.
Plagiarism is also detrimental to the quality of education. Which is why UCL has for years raised the awareness of both educators and students when it comes to plagiarism, via an information campaign and an annual plagiarism prevention day.