On many occasions, as part of the learning process, you will be instructed to work in groups in programmes of research or in the preparation of projects and similar assignments. This is 'collaboration', and is a legitimate academic skill that you have to learn. However, agreeing to hide someone else's individual input to such collaboration, with the intention of securing a mark higher than either you or they might deserve, is collusion. Similarly, allowing someone to copy your work, where you know that they intend to submit it as though it were their own, is also collusion and will lay both you and the other student open to a charge of academic malpractice.

Where you are asked to work in groups and to collaborate in specified activities, your teachers will always make clear how your individual input to such joint work is to be assessed and graded. Sometimes, for example, all members of a team may receive the same mark for a joint piece of work, on other occasions team members will receive individual marks, which reflect their individual input. If it is not clear on what basis your work is to be assessed, you should always ask for clarification, before submitting any assignment.