(1) Maintaining academic integrity is vital to QUT’s reputation and the reputation of its graduates. The purpose of this Policy is to: (2) This policy applies to: (3) This Policy does not apply to research higher degree students when undertaking the research component of their study. Integrity matters of research higher degree students are addressed in the QUT Code for Responsible Conduct of Research and in the Managing and Investigating Potential Breaches of the QUT Code for Responsible Conduct of Research Policy. (4) Academic integrity is a commitment to undertaking academic work and assessment in a manner which is ethical, fair, honest, respectful and accountable. (5) QUT is committed to maintaining high academic and professional standards and expects its students to undertake academic work and assessment in a manner which promotes academic integrity. (6) The principles of academic integrity are: (7) QUT has an educative approach to academic integrity and supports students to understand how to approach their academic work and assessment in a way that upholds appropriate standards of academic integrity by: (8) A student who has completed and passed the mandatory module on academic integrity will be determined to have an awareness of the standards of academic integrity at QUT. (9) A breach of academic integrity is conduct, intentional or unintentional, that fails to demonstrate ethics, fairness, honesty, respect and accountability when undertaking academic work and assessment. (10) A range of conduct may fail to uphold the standards of academic integrity and be classified as a breach. (11) All forms of cheating, including, but not limited to: (12) Collusion involves unauthorised collaboration on assessment items with any other person/s. Collusion includes, but is not limited to: (13) Contract cheating involves outsourcing the solution for assessment, wholly or in part, to a third party whether or not for a fee, other remuneration or benefit. Contract cheating includes, but is not limited to: (14) Fabrication or falsification is an intentional misrepresentation related to academic work. Fabrication and falsification include, but is not limited to: (15) Misrepresentation through documentation involves the intentional alteration or fabrication of documentation to obtain a benefit in assessment or other benefit related to enrolment at QUT. Misrepresentation through documentation includes, but is not limited to: (16) Plagiarism involves representing as one's own work the language, ideas or expressions of another person or persons. Plagiarism includes: (17) Self-plagiarism involves the re-use by a student of their own work, partially or wholly, that has been assessed, without appropriate acknowledgement of the source or permission of the Unit Coordinator. (18) Students must seek express consent from the Unit Coordinator prior to re-using their own work in an assessment submission, noting that this is permitted only in situations where all of the following conditions are met: (19) QUT recognises, as part of its educative approach, that conduct that breaches academic integrity may be the result of inexperience and/or misunderstanding and may not be done intentionally or recklessly. (20) A breach of this Policy is a breach of Code of Conduct - Student. A breach of academic integrity is classified as either poor academic practice or academic misconduct. Poor academic practice is addressed according to this Policy and academic misconduct is managed in Management of Student Misconduct Policy. (21) The classification of the breach takes into account the experience and conduct of the student, the impact of the conduct upon the ability to judge the student’s achievement of the learning outcomes in the assessment and other relevant circumstances. Relevant circumstances include, but are not limited to: (22) A finding of poor academic practice may occur when all of the following conditions are met: (23) A determination of poor academic practice may be found even if the student has completed and passed the mandatory module on academic integrity and had previous findings of poor academic practice recorded against them. However: (24) Findings of poor academic practice should be dealt with promptly. (25) Management of poor academic practice involves: (26) As part of the University’s educative approach, a student is issued with a warning of poor academic practice and may be required to: (27) The approach to managing poor academic practice is educative, raising a student’s awareness of relevant standards. Therefore, the educative approach for poor academic practice does not include the imposition of a penalty and this includes the deduction of marks. (28) If the assessment item demonstrating poor academic practice is marked, it will be judged according to the assessment criteria (rubric) and any part of the assessment that is not the student’s own academic work will not contribute to the mark of the item. (29) There is no review of a finding of poor academic practice as the outcome is educative to support students in understanding and maintaining the standards of academic integrity. (30) To support the principles of academic integrity and its educative approach, QUT adopts a range of practices. (31) Assessment is designed and conducted in such a way as to assure and sustain the integrity of the assessment process. All courses include a minimum number of verified identity assessments as specified in the Academic Integrity Protocol. Assessment rubrics include reference to appropriate standards of academic integrity as relevant to support student learning. (32) To support the principles that the standards of academic integrity are equitable and that it is the responsibly of everyone, technology may be adopted to assist in identifying potential breaches of academic integrity. This includes technology to detect plagiarism, the use of artificial intelligence, and technologies that support verification of student identity and proctoring. (33) To support the principles that the standards of academic integrity are evidenced and that it is the responsibly of everyone, reasonable steps must be taken to ensure that students are upholding the standards of academic integrity. (34) Verification of assessment may be implemented in a unit to evidence monitoring of academic integrity and to assure the design of the assessment. A verification of assessment is not necessarily based upon a suspected breach of academic integrity but may lead to an investigation of possible breach. (35) The form of verification will normally involve the academic discussing the students’ work with them within five working days of the submission of the assessment. The purpose of the verification process is to satisfy the academic that the assessment was the work of the student. (36) Verification of assessment is appropriate when the assessment is online and non-invigilated. If verification is to be included in a unit, this must be clearly communicated to the students before the assessment and an appropriate number of students must be included with a balance of representation of the student cohort in the unit. (37) If a Unit Coordinator has reasonable concerns that a student’s actions could be classified as academic misconduct, the Unit Coordinator may require the student to authenticate their learning. The authentication process must provide the student with an opportunity to demonstrate their competence or knowledge in the subject matter of the assessment item in question, in a manner that is appropriate to the nature of the assessment item. (38) This might include (but is not limited to) the Unit Coordinator: (39) The following conditions apply to the authentication of learning process: (40) The Unit Coordinator will consider the outcome of the authentication of learning process in determining whether the alleged breach of academic integrity has been substantiated or whether it is more appropriate to classify the conduct as poor academic practice. (41) If authentication of learning has not been undertaken or attempted, a Faculty Academic Misconduct Committee may refer a case back to a Unit Coordinator to conduct an authentication of learning process, provided that no findings have yet been made on the allegations by the Committee. (42) A finding of poor academic practice is recorded on the Academic Integrity Register. Consistent with the Management of Student Misconduct Policy, records must be maintained for cases of academic misconduct. (43) An annual report on academic integrity is prepared and presented to University Learning and Teaching Committee.Academic Integrity Policy
Section 1 - Purpose
Top of PageSection 2 - Application
Section 3 - Roles and Responsibilities
Top of Page
Position
Responsibility
Vice-President (Administration) and University Registrar
Imposes any penalty specified in Management of Student Misconduct Policy upon recommendation of Faculty Academic Misconduct Committee or exercises discretion to impose a different penalty or no penalty.
Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Academic)
Vice-President (Digital) and Chief Digital Officer
Ensures the provision of academic-integrity related software and other technologies to support academic integrity as required by Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Vice-President (Academic).
University Learning and Teaching Committee
Provides advice to University Academic Board on academic integrity.
Promotes a culture of personal and shared responsibility for academic and professional integrity, for all staff and students.
Promotes academic integrity training and support for academic staff within the faculty as required to support this Policy.
Imposes penalty as permitted by Management of Student Misconduct Policy on recommendation of Faculty Academic Misconduct Committee or exercises discretion to impose a different penalty or no penalty (may be delegated to Deputy Dean).
Head of School
Faculty Academic Misconduct Committee
Director, Curriculum Quality and Academic Integrity
Academic Integrity Officer
Course Coordinator or equivalent
Unit Coordinator
Examinations Coordinator
Determines how an allegation relating to a central examination should be managed under this Policy and Management of Student Misconduct Policy.
Teaching staff (including markers)
Student
Section 4 - Principles of Academic Integrity
Top of PageSection 5 - Academic Integrity Education
Section 6 - Academic Integrity Breaches
Cheating
Collusion
Contract cheating and impersonation
Fabrication or falsification
Misrepresentation through documentation
Plagiarism
Self-Plagiarism (re-use of own work)
Top of PageSection 7 - Classification of Academic Integrity Breaches
Top of PageSection 8 - Poor Academic Practice
Top of PageSection 9 - Management of Poor Academic Practice
Section 10 - Supporting Academic Integrity
Assessment design
Technology
Verification of assessment
Authentication of learning
Section 11 - Recordkeeping and Reporting
Section 12 - Definitions
Term
Definition
Learning and Teaching Materials
Means materials created for any learning activity, including class recordings, transcripts of classes, feedback on learning activities and assessment, assessment tasks, content guides, examples of assessment and resources provided to support any learning activity (e.g., presentation slides).
Poor Academic Practice
Verified Identity Assessment
Means summative assessment which cannot be completed without the identity of the student being verified.
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Reports annually to University Academic Board on academic integrity, analysing institutional trends, training and support for students and staff and developments in academic integrity.
Provides training and support for academic staff to design curriculum and assessment that supports students to build their capacity in ethical scholarly and professional practice.
Utilises institutional academic misconduct data to improve practices in learning and teaching.
Provides training, learning design support and technology-enabled systems for academic and professional staff to design and implement, and conduct student assessment with integrity.
Oversees the development and administration of academic integrity resources, training and support for students at the University level.
Ensures support for training for academic staff.
Utilises faculty reports on breaches of academic integrity and university academic misconduct data to improve practices in learning and teaching in consultation with academic integrity officer and Course Coordinator (or equivalent).
Determines outcome of poor academic practice upon recommendation of Unit Coordinator and academic integrity officer.
Considers allegations of academic misconduct by students and determines whether allegations have been substantiated and makes recommendations as to outcomes to Executive Dean or Vice-President (Administration) and University Registrar as appropriate.
Contributes to the community of practice facilitated by the Academic Integrity Unit.
Provides leadership for the implementation of policies, procedures and guidelines to promote and uphold academic integrity.
Facilitates the academic integrity community of practice across the University through the Academic Integrity Unit.
Monitors the effectiveness of academic integrity practices and systems, and is alert to new forms of academic misconduct.
Oversees the development of academic integrity resources, training and support for students and staff.
Supports the implementation of policies, procedures and guideline to promote and uphold academic integrity.
Facilitates the dissemination of the educative approach to academic integrity, the policy and processes to students and staff within their faculty/school.
Monitors academic integrity trends and issues within their faculty/school and contributes to the community of practice.
Provides support and advice to academics on the investigation of potential breaches of academic integrity, policy and processes and decision-making.
Assesses substantiated allegations of breach of academic policy as either poor academic practice or academic misconduct and advises the Unit Coordinator.
Supports the authentication of learning process when required.
Ensures that the assessment design of the course promotes academic and professional integrity, including that the course has the required number of verified identity assessments.
Ensures that any academic integrity issues in assessment design are addressed and remedied appropriately.
Ensures that the course embeds appropriate teaching of the standards of academic integrity.
Designs learning and assessment practices that embody appropriate standards of academic and professional integrity.
Considers allegations of breach of academic integrity by students within the unit and determines whether allegations have been substantiated.
Designs and conducts authentication of learning processes.
Monitors breaches of academic integrity in the unit and addresses underlying causes as appropriate.
Maintains an understanding of the University’s policies and procedures in respect of academic integrity and academic misconduct and engages in professional development opportunities.
Identifies possible breaches of academic integrity and follows processes of this Policy and Management of Student Misconduct Policy.
Meets any University requirements for academic integrity education, including meeting the outcomes of findings of poor academic practice.
Adopts an ethical approach to academic work and assessment in accordance with this policy and the Code of Conduct – Student.
Seeks appropriate additional support if required.
Participates in verification of assessment if required.
Provides evidence to authenticate their learning in assessment tasks when required.
Is a failure to maintain the standards of academic integrity when the failure may be reasonably judged to be attributed to inexperience or a lack of understanding and the academic judgment is that further education is required.
Includes Executive Director, QUT College.