Student-created content and intellectual property

Introduction

In the course of their studies students create intellectual and creative outputs, both assessed and unassessed. These may include posters, computer code, essays, diagrams, 3D models, videos and audio, and many other formats. From time to time situations arise where students or staff would like to make further use of these materials.

This page provides practical guidance for how students and staff can understand and manage their intellectual property in line with the University’s regulations (section XXIII). It aims to offer guidance on some common scenarios in which students and staff find themselves, so they can understand their individual rights, options and responsibilities.

---

Guidance for students

As a student you have an automatic right to copyright in your work and you can choose how others use your work. It is very easy to give away your copyright simply by signing agreements and contracts without reading them thoroughly. You can keep your copyright and apply a licence to your work, choosing how you want others to use it, whether that’s while you’re at University or afterwards. Creative Commons licences and software licences are straightforward and popular to use (watch our bite-size video on Creative Commons licences).

Example scenarios for students

1. I want to publish / share my work outside the University. Is that ok?

If your work is for assessment and it has not yet been assessed then no, it should not be shared beyond the institution because it may get picked up by Turnitin (plagiarism detection tool). If the work has been assessed it can be published. The following exceptions apply:

• You must be the sole author (i.e. there were no collaborators, including other students and staff). If it forms part of group work see the separate question below. 
• Provided it doesn’t fall under any of these categories:
  • you are employed or sponsored by another institution or organisation
  • you are carrying out a sponsored project or placement
  • where the work being carried out derives from the intellectual property of University staff
  • the work has the creation of intellectual property as a primary or substantial purpose
  • if the work was created for certain exempt modules (check with your module lead)

2. I want to publish my work which was created with others as part of group work.

Everybody involved in the creation of the work shares in the copyright of the work and has the right to be credited and acknowledged. Consent must be explicitly given by the other copyright holders (e.g. students and any staff members involved). No response does not equal consent. Keep a record of the consent, for example any emails you receive.

3. What do I need to think about if I am uploading material, e.g. video, poster to an external site?

• You should check that there is no third party copyright material in what you are planning to upload (i.e. material such as text, images or code that you have not created yourself). If you do include others’ material that is not already available under an open licence (e.g. Creative Commons), you should obtain permission from them before you upload it. This includes material that has been created by University staff for your degree programme (see Coursework sites and unfair means). Contact the copyright holder explaining what precisely you wish to use, what it will be used for and how you intend to share your work.  You will need to ask how they wish to be attributed and be sure to adhere to this. Make sure you keep a copy of any permissions you receive and be aware that no reply does not equate to permission. 
• Alternatively, one of the copyright exceptions may apply to your use, or you could use material which has a licence covering your use. In your material you should always acknowledge and attribute others’ work (read the guidance from Creative Commons).
• Check the terms and conditions of the external site to make sure that you are not giving away your copyright to them and that you are happy with their terms and conditions.

4. My work contains images, text, etc that I haven’t created myself. What do I need to consider?

• If you include others’ material you should obtain permission from them before you upload it. Contact the copyright holder explaining what precisely you wish to use, what it will be used for and how you intend to share your work.  You will need to ask how they wish to be attributed and be sure to adhere to this. Make sure you keep a copy of any permissions you receive and be aware that no reply does not equate to permission. 
• Alternatively, one of the copyright exceptions may apply to your use or you could use material which has a licence covering your use.
• In your material always acknowledge and attribute others’ work (read the guidance from Creative Commons).

5. Where can I find openly licensed material such as images, video, music, etc?

Sites such as Openverse contain thousands of free works which you can explore. You can also search Google Images using their advanced search. Enter your search terms and then towards the bottom of the screen change the usage rights to filter results by the type of use you want to make. The tutorial on finding and using images provides useful guidance.

6. A member of staff has asked me to assign my copyright to the University. Should I do this and what are the implications?

Remember, as the copyright holder, it’s up to you to decide whether or not you want other people to use your work. If you consent to let the University use your work it is preferable to retain your own copyright, rather than give it away. There are other options you can suggest to the member of staff which allow you to keep your copyright. You could apply an open licence to your work (such as Creative Commons) which will let anybody wishing to use your work know how they can do so and if there are any restrictions. Alternatively you could grant a licence to the University by creating a written and signed agreement with the University as to how they can use your work and for what purpose. This should include:

• for how long you wish to allow the University to use the work
• for what specific purpose
• any restrictions you want to place on the use of your work - see example text below

Example - "I have written a piece of music [Title of composition here] and I consent for it to be used in internal teaching materials by [name of School or department] for the next [insert number] of years but not to be put on an external website or further sub-licensed."

Revocation of permission: If you change your mind about granting permission you should contact the person you have an agreement with to let them know.

---

Guidance for staff

Taught students have an automatic right to the copyright of their work and can choose how others use their work. As a member of staff it is important that you don’t use a student's work for anything other than assessment without first seeking permission from the student. It is generally easier to gain permission for this before the work has been submitted. A good time to do this could be when you set the assignment to the students. If this is a group assignment, it is also an ideal time to encourage the students to agree on how they should manage the copyright of their work (see student examples at point 2 above). It is important that all students contributing to a group project reach a consensus.

If a student contacts you to withdraw permission you should try to accommodate their request as far as is practicable. The following examples use common scenarios to outline good practice.

Example scenarios for staff

1. You want to use a student’s work, either internally or externally to promote University business e.g. at open days, outreach events, or in presentations to external audiences.

There are different approaches to gaining the copyright permission that you need. You should choose one of the following options:

• Ask the student to apply an open licence (Creative Commons licence for text-based outputs, or an appropriate software licence for code)
• Ask the student to grant a licence to the University specifying precisely how the work will be used, for what duration and how it should be attributed.
• Ask the student to assign copyright to the University. Note that assigning copyright cannot be revoked, so students need to be fully aware of the implications of this (see student information at point 6 above).

Staff must check the terms of the licence, gain the consent of the student(s) before using the work and guarantee to provide attribution or make it anonymous, depending on the student’s wishes.

2. A student and an academic co-create work together. One of them wants to make use of that work later, such as publishing it elsewhere.

Even if, at the point of creation, there is no intention to re-use the work it is good practice to imagine this might happen, and therefore all parties should be given the option to consent / not consent and licence appropriately.

3. A student records a lecture (video or audio) what can they do with the recording?

Students should only make personal recordings of lectures as specified in section 2b of the Encore lecture capture policy guidance. 

4. Students work with an academic to create an open educational resource (e.g. a Google site, blog, external facing site) that will be available under an open licence. Content includes student-created text, diagrams and videos.

If you are interested in creating an open educational resource with your students, talk to the librarian for your department / school at the outset for advice. The following points should be borne in mind:

• Staff must gain consent of student(s) before using the work and guarantee to provide attribution or make it anonymous, depending on the student’s wishes.
• Everybody involved in the creation of the work shares in the copyright of the work and has the right to be credited and acknowledged. Consent must be explicitly given by the other copyright holders (e.g. students and any staff members involved). No response does not equal consent. Keep a record of the consent, for example any emails you receive. 
• You should be aware that students may have included third party copyright materials and you should therefore help your students to deal with this content before publishing the Google site (see guidance given for students at point 4 above).

5. Are there instances where students do not own their own IP?

As stated in the University Calendar, regulation XXIII, where students are employed by the University, e.g. the SURE scheme or other similar extra curricular activities, the Intellectual Property belongs to the University. When students are conducting extra curricular activities that are unpaid, the intellectual property resides with the student.

6. Is there specific guidance on how to acknowledge the individual contributions of the student collaborators within a group project?

Students should be acknowledged as authors or collaborators (or they may choose to be anonymous and this should be respected). The attribution could take the form of overall authorship, a credit line linked to a specific resource that they created, or a general statement of contributors in an introduction or acknowledgements section.

---

More information

If you have any questions relating to copyright and licensing of student or staff intellectual property then please contact us.