Student Support - Division of Student Services

ACADEMIC ADVICE

Academic Misconduct

What is academic misconduct?

Academic misconduct is where a student(s) compromises the assessment procedures by which the University tests the knowledge and skills of students and ascribes value to their work. At CSU academic misconduct, as defined, is usually limited to activities which constitute plagiarism, cheating or collusion.

CSU is committed to equality of assessment and to protecting the integrity of the awards conferred on students. It will not tolerate cheating or any other activity that may give one student an advantage over others.

The University regards the matter very seriously and the penalties are correspondingly severe. Students, at minimum, can face failure in a subject and/or suspension from the course for a period.

Click to view the Student Academic Misconduct Rule.

Follow the links to Part F, Student Academic Misconduct Policy

What is Plagiarism?

A student plagiarises if he/she gives the impression that the ideas, words, or work of another person are their own. Plagiarism will include:

(i) copying any material from books, journals, study notes or tapes, the Web, the work of other students, or any other source without indicating this by quotation marks or by indentation, italics or spacing and without acknowledging that source by footnote or citation; or

(ii) rephrasing ideas from books, journals, study notes or tapes, the Web, the work of other students, or any other source without acknowledging the source of those ideas by footnotes or citations. This could include material copied from a source and acknowledged, but presented as the student’s own paraphrasing.

Plagiarism is to be distinguished from inadequate and/or inappropriate attempts to acknowledge the words, works or ideas of someone else, as for example when a student makes a genuine attempt to reference their work, but has very poor referencing skills.

Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to:

copying unacknowledged passages from textbooks;
reusing in whole or in part the work of another student;
obtaining materials from the Web and submitting them, modified or otherwise, as one's own work;
submitting work which is derived in whole or in part from the work of another person but which has been changed in superficial respects possibly by mechanical means.

Common examples where students have fallen foul of the plagiarism rule are as follows:

copying material from the standard text or from notes supplied by a lecturer and failing to indi cate it with quotation marks or citation of the source. Some students had assumed that material provided by the lecturer was standard and did not need to be acknowledged;
obtaining materials from the Web and submitting them, modified or otherwise, as one’s own work;

Please ensure that you follow the guidelines on referencing supplied by the subject coordinator.

Information on referencing, including links to referencing guides and workshops can be found at:

http://www.csu.edu.au/division/studserv/learning/referencing/

What is Collusion?

A student colludes when he/she works without permission with another person(s) to produce work that is then presented as work completed independently by the student.

While the University accepts that students can discuss with others an assignment (ie the structure, resources involved and the relevant issues), it expects students to then independently complete the task. This normally would include acquiring their own data, writing up their own findings and drawing their own conclusions.

Unfortunately students often work so closely with colleagues on a topic that they end up co-writing the one assignment, and this is unacceptable.

A common example of collusion is allowing another student, who has to submit an assignment on the same topic, access to one’s own assignment.

Cheating

A student cheats if he/she does not abide by the conditions set for a particular learning experience, item of assessment or examination.

Cheating includes the following:

copying the answers of another student in an exam or allowing another student to copy from you in the exam;
taking unauthorised materials into an exam.

What happens if someone (eg a lecturer or an examination invigilator) thinks you have committed academic misconduct?

The regulations on how incidents of Student Academic Misconduct are investigated are detailed in the Student Academic Misconduct Policy.

Follow the links to Part F, Student Academic Misconduct Policy.

In summary, if a lecturer is concerned that a student may have committed student academic misconduct they should advise the Head of School in writing. The Head of School (or a person nominated by the Head of School) will contact the student (either by phone, e-mail or by mail) to let them know that the matter is being investigated. In most cases the student will be invited to a meeting to discuss the matter. This constitutes a preliminary investigation.

During the preliminary enquiry the Head of School (or nominee) will:

explain the concerns that have been raised (eg they may point out that in an essay there was material taken from a text that was not referenced)
ask the student to explain why this may have happened.
ask the student if they feel they may have plagiarised (or colluded or cheated).

On the basis of this preliminary meeting the person conducting the enquiry could recommend a number of different actions:

They could recommend that there is no case to answer.
They could conclude that the matter needs to be investigated further.
They could recommend that a penalty be applied.

How the matter proceeds is determined by the student’s response and the evidence that has been presented.

If during the preliminary investigation the student indicates that they do NOT feel they have committed an offence, the Head of School may recommend that the matter be investigated further by the Student Academic Misconduct Appeals Panel. In this case the student will receive a copy of the report detailing the allegation, and they will be invited to put their case in writing to the Panel.

If during the preliminary investigation the student indicates that they DID commit an offence, the Head of School may recommend to the Dean that an appropriate penalty be applied.

What help is available if you’re being investigated for Student Academic Misconduct?

It’s important that you contact a Student Support Officer as soon as you become aware that an investigation into academic misconduct is being conducted.

The Student Support Officer can assist you to understand how the investigation will be conducted. They can also assist you with preparing your case.