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Academic integrity
- Academic integrity
- Academic policy updates in 2023
- Academic integrity breaches
- Detection and investigation of academic integrity breaches
- Artificial intelligence
Academic policy updates in 2023
The University’s Academic Board approved a new Academic Integrity Policy 2022 and Academic Integrity Procedures 2022 in November 2022. The new policy and procedures set out the University’s expectation relating to academic integrity and apply to all staff, students and affiliates from Monday 20 February 2023.
What you need to know
The main changes under the new policy and procedures are intended to provide greater clarity to students and staff about what behaviours are considered cheating behaviours in the current context.
They are also intended to provide students with faster, educationally-focused outcomes for identified breaches wherever possible and appropriate, and ensure that more serious breaches can be resolved in a more timely way than in the past.
Policy changes you need to be aware of include:
- the policy has an expanded section describing the characteristics of the main types of behaviour we consider to involve a breach of academic integrity, including emerging forms of contract cheating
- there is a simpler framework for defining what constitutes a ‘minor breach’, ‘major breach’ and ‘potential (academic) misconduct’ to enable unit coordinators and key faculty decision-makers to respond to identified breaches of academic integrity in more context-specific and student-centred ways
- there are changes in who can make decisions about academic integrity breaches, with the main change permitting your unit coordinator to address minor instances of plagiarism or recycling with a primarily educational focus, albeit with the ability to apply small, remedial mark reductions to remove any advantage that could be gained through inappropriate academic practice.
Use of artificial intelligence and writing assistance tools
Another of the main policy updates you need to be aware of is that we do not generally permit use of artificial intelligence content generators and tools to create or modify your assessable work. You can only use these tools if your unit of study coordinator has expressly permitted your whole class to do so. This means that the unapproved use of AI tools in the completion of assignments is considered to be a breach of academic integrity.
This also applies to the use of other writing assistance tools, including grammar checkers, translation and paraphrasing tools, and reference generators.
You may only use artificial intelligence and writing assistance tools in assessment tasks if you are permitted to by your unit coordinator, and if you do use them you must also acknowledge this in your work, either in a footnote or an acknowledgement section
If you are permitted to do this by your unit coordinator, you must also include a statement in your submitted work that you have used AI tools in completing the work and how you have done this (see note above about other writing assistance tools).
Transitional arrangements
If you are being investigated for an academic integrity breach related to a unit of study in 2022, the case will be managed under the former Academic Honesty in Coursework Policy 2015 and Academic Honesty Procedures 2016.
Last updated: 14 June 2023
