In higher education, it is really important for students to use references in their work and to know how to do this following a standard reference system.

Referencing is a way of acknowledging sources of any information used in an essay, project or assignment. It shows what research the student has done. Proper referencing is an essential requirement of academic writing and prevents the writer from being accused of 'stealing' other people's work and ideas.

At university, students lose marks if their work is not properly referenced, and plagiarism - pretending that someone else's work and ideas are your own - is considered a serious offence. Students may be tempted to copy work from the internet in the hope that no-one will know where it came from, but this is cheating and students are likely to be found out. Teachers can usually recognise a student's style of writing and spot differences; they also carry out internet research themselves and may well recognise the source.