This paper addresses the cultural infl uences that contribute to student attitudes to plagiarism by examining undergraduate mechanical engineering students. The participants were selected based on their lack of familiarity with the Australian university system: they were either fi rstyear undergraduate Australian students matriculating directly from high school or newly arrived international students. Attitudes to plagiarism were determined through interviews and surveys. Their abilities to recognise and rate the level of plagiarism in a series of writing samples were also examined. The results revealed that there was little difference between the international and fi rst-year Australian students. Skill defi ciencies and language issues, representing potentially signifi cant disadvantage with respect to academic writing, were evident, however, when international students were asked to correct the identifi ed plagiarised material. In the international student group there was poor alignment of students' understanding of plagiarism and their perception of its impact with that stated in university academic conduct policy. It also appears that after the admission requirements for an Australian tertiary institution are met, the lack of exposure to and familiarity with specifi c academic cultural expectations is as signifi cant as the ethnicity and linguistic background of the student.

Professional ethics instruction in engineering is commonly conducted by examining case studies in light of the code of conduct of a suitable professional body. Although graphical presentations of spectacular failures, sobering stories of the repercussions and the solid framework provided by the tenets of a code of ethics may leave a lasting impression, students generally gain their professional identity from relatives and colleagues. Their professional ethics tend to be mostly an extension of their personal ethics. Instruction on ethics generally serves only to reinforce students' inclination to act ethically and provides encouragement to act on these beliefs. In this study a survey based on previous investigations was conducted (n = 1136) to examine the personal ethical perceptions of engineering students. The survey measured how engineering students perceive their own ethical beliefs and how they perceive the ethical beliefs and actions of their peers. As a learning exercise, students were then challenged by examining their personal ethical beliefs in light of the professional ethics requirements of the Institute of Engineers Australia (IEAust) code of conduct. After familiarisation with the Engineers Australia code of ethics, students were also invited to comment regarding their beliefs regarding adherence to this code.

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The modern university may arguably be characterised by a steadfast belief in the mutually beneficial relationship between the teaching and research activities of its academics. Quantitative studies however have repeatedly demonstrated negative or zero correlation between the various teaching and research measures employed at the individual academic level. Very few investigations contributing to the teaching-research nexus debate have examined the student perspective. The present study therefore looked at the influence of the teaching-research nexus in facilitating student learning. The results of a survey and follow-up discussion groups conducted as part of the present investigation appear to indicate that there is limited benefit to the student at the tangible, tacit or global level of the teaching and research relationship. There is also no support for the premise that active research involvement of an academic is a requirement for good teaching. The central conclusion of the study is in fact that the teaching and research activities of academics should be treated as unrelated entities. Although it is necessary and beneficial to retain an effective teaching-research nexus at the institutional and departmental levels, students do not appear to benefit greatly from individual teaching staff involvement in research activities. At an individual level, research and teaching activities compete for limited time and resources with little benefit of the transference between these reported as evident by students.

Mooring systems utilised for floating structures typically introduce non-linear load-excursion behaviour. This non-linear compliance and the accompanying amplitude dependent natural frequency, influences the Vortex-Induced Vibration (VIV) response of the structure. The application of linear compliance VIV modelling and experimental data has been demonstrated to produce significant uncertainties regarding VIV onset and response prediction of catenary moored cylindrical structures (Bjarke et al. 2003; Dijk et al. 2003). The vortex-induced vibration issues associated with catenary moored cylindrical structures were investigated through non-linearly compliant elastically mounted rigid cylinder experiments. In particular, third order polynomial, hard spring stiffness, (typical of catenary moorings) was considered. The effect on transverse VIV lock-in and vibration amplitudes was examined using a single degree of freedom experimental rig. The experimental rig consisted of a moderately damped, elastically mounted rigid cylinder, restricted in all but the cross-flow direction through use of linear slide mechanism. The linear and cubic compliance components were independently varied over the non-linear compliance ratio of 0 to 0.3. All experimentation was conducted within the stable sub-critical Reynolds number range. The experimental data was compared to numerical results produced by the VIV modelling software package VisFlo. The program utilises a vortex-in-cell discrete vortex numerical method that was modified to allow the inclusion of varying degrees of structural non-linearity.