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Student Academic Integrity policy

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Section 1 - Preamble

(1) This Policy is effective from 30 July 2021. 

(2) This Policy is pursuant to the Academic Board Regulations.

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Section 2 - Purpose

(3) This Policy outlines the principles and responsibilities for promoting, supporting and upholding student academic integrity standards.

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Section 3 - Scope

(4) This Policy applies to students of the University as defined in Section 6 – Definitions of this Policy. Where students conduct research, they must also comply with the Research Conduct policy and the Research Integrity Breaches procedure. This Policy applies to staff in terms of their role in maintaining high standards of student academic integrity.

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Section 4 - Policy

Academic Integrity Principles

(5) Academic Board is responsible for establishing and regulating academic integrity standards for the University, including for staff and students, to support a culture and environment that promotes and fosters ethical academic and research conduct.

(6) The University is committed to honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility in academic settings and the promotion of a culture of academic integrity.

(7) The University will uphold academic integrity and apply an educative approach that supports students to use, generate and communicate information in an ethical, honest and responsible manner.

(8) The University will ensure that:

  1. academic integrity is supported through academic policies, course design and assessment standards
  2. all Academic staff are appropriately trained in academic integrity and are familiar with relevant policies and support available for students
  3. all students are provided with genuine and timely opportunities to learn about academic integrity
  4. opportunities for breaches of academic integrity are minimised.

(9) Allegations that students have breached academic integrity will be responded to in a fair, consistent, transparent and timely manner. Students will be given the opportunity to formally present their case and no person will suffer victimisation as a result of raising an allegation in good faith.

(10) University Staff who are responsible for investigating and determining an alleged breach of academic integrity will respect the privacy and confidentiality of all parties and reach conclusions based on a fair hearing. Decision-makers will be guided by the Decision-making Principles set out in Part 8 of the Academic Board Regulations.

Academic Integrity Standards

(11) The Academic Board is responsible for establishing and regulating academic integrity standards for the University, including for staff and students, to support a culture and environment that promotes and fosters ethical academic and research conduct.

(12) A breach of academic integrity standards includes but is not limited to:

  1. passing off the work of any other person as the student’s own work, including plagiarism, contract cheating, collusion, and could include submission of non-original work for assessment in a course or unit;
  2. impersonating any other person in, or for the purpose of, any examination, essay, assignment, course requirement or any other work relevant to assessment or allowing impersonation by another person for those purposes;
  3. failing to comply with the University’s directions given in connection with any examination or assessment, including having, possessing, accessing or using unauthorised material in the examination or assessment, whether or not with the intention of using the material to obtain an advantage;
  4. obtaining from, or giving to, any other person during any examination, or other assessment any information relating to that examination or other assessment or any part of it without the approval of the supervisor of that examination or other assessment;
  5. undertaking an examination in breach of the conditions set down by the University for the supervision and conduct of the examination;
  6. providing false information or fraudulent documentation including academic transcripts or medical certificates;
  7. acting in a manner that fails to meet or promote the standards of academic integrity required by the University.

Responsibilities

(13) Staff will:

  1. demonstrate academic integrity to students in accordance with the staff Academic Integrity policy
  2. maintain currency of training and skills to identify a breach of academic integrity standards
  3. develop students’ knowledge and skills in relation to academic integrity in accordance with the Student Academic Integrity procedure
  4. ensure assessment design and processes support academic integrity
  5. be fair, consistent, transparent and timely in their dealings with students and colleagues in managing academic integrity issues, in accordance with Academic Board Regulation 35, Student Breaches of Academic and Research Integrity Standards and the Student Academic Integrity procedure. Decisions will be guided by the Decision-making Principles set out in Part 8 of the Academic Board Regulations.

(14) Students will:

  1. be familiar with and apply the principles of academic integrity, including by:
    1. complying with instructions for assessment tasks
    2. submitting their own original work
    3. acknowledging all ideas, designs, words or works of others, including in group assessments, in accordance with expectations of the discipline
    4. taking reasonable steps to prevent their own work from being copied by other students
    5. providing accurate and truthful documentation to the University
  2. support a culture of ethical academic conduct and encourage other students to act with academic integrity.

(15) Executive Deans and Institute Directors (for Institutes established outside a Faculty) are responsible for ensuring that they have a strategy in place to:

  1. ensure that University requirements relating to student academic integrity are known and practiced by teaching and supervisory staff and that these staff have the skills to enable them to support and teach students to act in accordance with academic integrity
  2. develop and maintain the skills of teaching and supervisory staff to enable them to identify a breach of academic integrity standards
  3. implement approaches in teaching, learning and assessment to enhance students’ academic integrity and minimise opportunities for students to breach academic integrity and take appropriate action where potential breaches are identified

(16) Each Faculty Board establish (or equivalent for Institutes established outside a Faculty) will establish an Academic Integrity Committee to:

  1. monitor, receive, investigate, hear and determine allegations of academic integrity breaches of students enrolled in the Faculty or Institute;
  2. report the outcome in relation to any allegation of an academic integrity breach to Academic Board in accordance with the Student Academic Integrity procedure.

Record keeping

(17) Records of investigations and outcomes of allegations that students have breached academic integrity will be kept centrally. Records must be collected, maintained and distributed in accordance with Part 8 - Decision-making Principles of the Academic Board Regulations and applicable privacy legislation.

Reporting

(18) Academic Integrity Committees will monitor, review and report annually to the relevant Faculty Board (or equivalent in an Institute outside a Faculty), Dean of Students and Academic Board on allegations of breaches of academic integrity standards.

Third parties

(19) The University will ensure that its standards for academic integrity are maintained in contractual arrangements with any third party involved in the delivery of courses in partnership with the University. Student placements will be managed in accordance with the Student Placement procedure.

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Section 5 - Procedure

(20) The Student Academic Integrity procedure documents how to comply with this Policy.

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Section 6 - Definitions

(21) For the purpose of this Policy:

  1. academic integrity: as defined in the Academic Board Regulations. Academic integrity is part of the moral code of academia. It involves using, generating and communicating information in an ethical, honest and responsible manner.
  2. Academic Integrity Committee: a committee established by the relevant Faculty Board (or equivalent for an Institute established outside a Faculty) to monitor, receive, investigate, hear and determine matters relating to an allegation of a breach of academic integrity standards, as well as monitoring trends and issues in relation to student academic integrity and reporting and making recommendations for continuous quality improvement.
  3. breach of student academic integrity: may include (but is not limited to):
  Breach Definition
a. Plagiarism A student using other people’s words, ideas, media, research findings or other information as their own without appropriate referencing.
b. Contract cheating A student requesting someone else to produce all or part of an assessment task that is submitted as their own work, including arrangements through a third party.
c. Collusion A student working with another person to submit some or all of the other person’s work as their own or vice versa.
d. Non-compliance with assessment or examination instructions or requirements A student having or providing unauthorised materials relating to the assessment or examination, copying other students’ work, or obtaining or providing information without appropriate permission.
e. Impersonation A student pretending to be someone else, or allowing someone else to pretend to be them, for an assessment task or course requirement.
f. Fraud A student seeking unfair academic advantage through dishonest behaviour, including (but not limited to) providing false or altered information such as medical certificates, academic transcripts and assessment submission receipts.
g. Reuse of previous work A student submitting work previously submitted for assessment in any unit or course, without the permission of the Unit Chair.
h. Promoting ways to breach academic integrity A student sharing information with other students about ways to breach academic integrity or facilitating a breach of academic integrity.
  1. Faculty means an academic organisational unit established as a Faculty by Council in accordance with Council Regulation 16.
  2. Institute means an Institute established by Council in accordance with Council Regulation 17. Institutes may be established either within or outside a Faculty in accordance with Vice-Chancellor Regulation 8.
  3. student has the meaning given in the Deakin University Act and includes a person who was a student at the time the relevant conduct occurred, as defined in the Academic Board Regulations. Student includes:
    1. a person enrolled in a course or unit in the University pursuant to Academic Board Regulations Part 5 - Admission, Selection and Enrolment;
    2. a student of another higher education institution to whom Deakin grants rights of access to University premises and facilities;
    3. a candidate for an award of the University whose work has been examined or assessed but on whom the award has not been conferred;
    4. a person who was a student at the time the relevant conduct occurred;
    5. a person who is on leave of absence from or who has intermitted or deferred enrolment in a unit or course of the University;
    6. a person designated as a student by Council.