International student at risk of deportation after academic misconduct charges

Our client was an international student, pursuing her doctorate degree while also pursuing a master’s degree. As an international student, our client was an English-Language Learner and had no previous experience with the citation format required by the school. She received allegations of plagiarism (including self-plagiarism) and falsification of her credentials via social media. Having already received two previous academic misconduct charges, our client was facing dismissal from her program and the possible revocation of her student visa. Over the course of six months, we worked with our client to clarify the situation and ensure that she would not lose her academic progress nor her visa. We identified key details in the student handbook which demonstrated that our client did not self-plagiarize because she had explicit permission to use her coursework toward completing her thesis. We also worked with the relevant committee to provide our client with the necessary instruction and support to remediate any citation issues from other plagiarism charges. Our client received her desired outcome so she could continue to pursue her doctoral and master’s degrees.