My colleague submitted my old academic work as their own.

The university has confirmed it.

The colleague has since withdrew from the course.

I am quite upset by what the colleague did.

What are my options in terms of civil law to take this further?

Not sure if this is the right place to ask...

Can't find any plagiarism related forums.

The only reason to bring any court actions about this would be to recover any losses that you might have suffered. For instance, if the copied work has been used to earn money then you might think of bringing an action to divest the plagiarist of that money.

Also, if you feel that in some way the copied work has been used in a way that brings disrepute on you as the true author, then you could consider claiming compensation for this. This would probably produce a better return.

When you refer to your "colleague", are you members of staff or are you students at this university? If your students, then what is the level of the work? Is it part of a university degree submission or is it a PhD thesis or dissertation or what?

When you refer to your "colleague", are you members of staff or are you students at this university? If your students, then what is the level of the work? Is it part of a university degree submission or is it a PhD thesis or dissertation or what?

A whole postgraduate course portfolio of 80+ pages, 90% of which is verbatim my work.

Completion of the course leads to professional qualifications and a pay rise, but the colleague withdrew from the course.

We work together, hence colleague.

A whole postgraduate course portfolio of 80+ pages, 90% of which is verbatim my work.

 

Completion of the course leads to professional qualifications and a pay rise, but the colleague withdrew from the course.

 

We work together, hence colleague.

Again, what loss have you suffered?

what do you want out of this? Your colleague can certainly suffer because of this but you can only be compensated for an acual loss.

Now that loss doesnt have to be monetary but it will have to be quantifiable in cash terms because that is how courts and other bodies make their awards. So, to make a claim you will ideally need to use a standard compensatory benchmark so something like the Vento scale.

Also, who do you expect to make good this loss, it was your colleague who was in the wrong, does he have any money to pay you your costs and compensation if you win a claim? if not them why waste money suing them. You could consider your eployer didnt do enought o stop this or think that they are somehow culpable. To what extent in terms of percentages? 50%? 10%. make a wrong calculation here and you will lose a claim even if it is justified.

I would be looking at an apology from the colleague and let your employer deal with everything else. they will think better of you for that and you wont be their favourite if you do sue the collegue as their name will be dragged into all of this and they wont like it.

Thank you for all the replies. I was exploring the options, and indeed, on reflection, it seems reasonable to ask for apologies rather than anything else.