Policy changes 2024

UniSQ has revised our Student Academic Misconduct Procedure and Academic Misconduct Penalty Schedule to improve the process and provide students with more educative opportunities for academic improvement.

Some of the key changes include:

POOR ACADEMIC PRACTICE

What is Poor Academic Practice?

Poor academic practice occurs when a student's work shows signs of minor academic misconduct and offers the student an opportunity to be counselled and undertake further training instead of the matter proceeding to a formal investigation. It is designed to be educative and save students time going through a formal process only to receive a warning at the end of it.

Examples of poor academic practice include:

· inadequate acknowledgement of source material, including previously submitted work and material generated using artificial intelligence tools
· poor paraphrasing or referencing
· collaboration with other students when the work should be completed individually

Who is Eligible for Poor Academic Practice?

Students may be eligible and offered an educative intervention where:

· it is the student's first offence; and
· the student is in the first eight courses of their program of study; and
· the evidence does not indicate the student intended to obtain an unfair advantage

Who Makes the Decision?

The Course Coordinator who identifies suspected academic misconduct may determine the student is eligible for poor academic practice. The Academic Integrity Lead will review all available material and make the final decision and pass it back to the Course Coordinator to work with the student.

REVIEW OF DECISION

Where an academic misconduct penalty does not include a period of suspension or expulsion, a student may lodge a request for review of the decision in accordance with section 4.4 of the Student Grievance Resolution Procedure.

What do Students Need to Do?

A student must detail the reasons for the request and include at least one of the following:

· relevant factors that the original Decision-maker did not take into account;
· irrelevant factors that the original Decision-maker took into account but should not have;
· why the original Decision was incorrect, given the circumstances in which the matter arose;
· additional relevant information; or procedural errors.

Students may submit their application online.

What Outcomes May be Reached?

· affirm the Decision under review;
· vary the Decision under review; or
· set aside the Decision under review and:

• make a new Decision in substitution for the original Decision; or
• remit the matter for reconsideration by the original Decision-maker in accordance with any directions or recommendations of the reviewing Decision-maker.

In cases of academic misconduct this may result in a different decision regarding Category or penalty being applied.

SUSPENSIONS AND EXPULSIONS

The suspension and expulsion process has been separated from the Category 2 penalty application to allow for quicker feedback to the student. It now includes a show cause element for the student.

Who determines if a suspension or expulsion is applied?

The Academic Integrity Lead is the first person to review the student's case and history of academic misconduct and identify if a student is eligible for the suspension and expulsion process. A panel will be the decision maker in most cases.

What Does the Student need to do?

The student will be issued a notice of intention to suspend or expel containing the following:

· provide the Student with full details of the Decision, including the reasons for making the Decision
· describe the process of responding to the proposed penalty, including advising the Student of the importance of providing reasons why they should not be Suspended or Expelled for Academic Misconduct and that their written response will be considered by a panel
· advise the Student they may contact the nominated person to seek clarity about any part of the process.