Academic Integrity and Misconduct Policy

1. Purpose

To acknowledge that integrity is key to all aspects of education and training, and that academic honesty and respect for others’ work is the responsibility of Canberra Institute of Technology (CIT) staff and students.

To ensure the CIT community understands. and their work reflects. academic integrity, including honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility.

To identify behaviours and standards of conduct to foster a learning environment of academic integrity.

To ensure that students and staff are fully informed of the policy and procedures regarding academic integrity and plagiarism.

To provide a systematic approach to academic integrity and breaches of academic integrity.

This policy is to be read in conjunction with Academic Integrity and Misconduct Procedure.

2. Scope

Where this policy refers to CIT, it includes CIT Solutions.

This policy applies to all CIT staff and students, regardless of campus location or the mode of delivery.

3. Principles

CIT will meet the Standards for Registered Training Organisations 2015 and other regulatory requirements relating to academic integrity.

CIT is committed to ensuring high standards of academic scholarship are reinforced, and students present thoughts, opinions, concepts, ideas and information in assessments that are independent, well researched and their own. Use of generative artificial intelligence tools (computer systems able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence) may be sanctioned by the educator.

It is critical that:

a clear standard is articulated, regarding the submission of work for assessment and reinforcement of the principles of academic integrity
students and staff understand what constitutes academic integrity, cheating, plagiarism and collusion.

Academic misconduct, either intentional or unintentional, is a practice which runs counter to the very purpose of vocational education and training (VET).

There is an expectation that students will prepare and submit assessment work which:

is their own
acknowledges the work of others
is authentic and completed without access to generative artificial intelligence tools, unless specific permission is given by the educator with relevant referencing.

Acts of academic misconduct are unacceptable and will not be tolerated.

Academic misconduct is considered a serious incident and disciplinary procedures apply. Refer: CIT Student Conduct Policy.

Support services are available to all students to develop academic writing, research and attribution/citation skills.

Students will be made aware of this policy through published materials, orientation, and induction programs.

This policy will form part of CIT staff induction at the team level, and information regarding academic integrity will be published on the CIT website.

CIT uses American Psychological Association (APA) or Harvard referencing standards to acknowledge original sources.

CIT may require student assessments to be submitted using an academic integrity management tool.

Students will make a declaration for each assessment task that the work submitted is their own work.

Following the principles of natural justice and procedural fairness, academic misconduct will be handled in the following manner:

When academic misconduct is suspected, every attempt will be made to speak promptly with the student.
At the discretion of the educator, action to be taken during an assessment event, where a student disrupts the assessment event by breaching academic integrity.
Students suspected of academic misconduct, during an assessment event, will be allowed to complete the assessment task before action is taken.
Students involved in academic misconduct will be given academic advice and offered training regarding academic integrity.
The educator will consider the circumstances where more than one student is involved in the academic misconduct, and may apply different outcomes for each student.
Students may seek support and assistance from CIT Student Support during any inquiry into academic misconduct.
Students are entitled to appeal a decision regarding academic misconduct and request a review of the outcome of the decision. Refer: Student and Community Members Complaint Policy

3.1 Roles and responsibilities

3.1.1 Students

Students are responsible for:

becoming familiar with and developing good practices in maintaining academic and research integrity
knowing the standards of behaviour expected from students, and the disciplinary procedures CIT will take for academic and research misconduct
always acting with academic and research integrity during any kind of assessment activity, industry placement and collaborative activities
completing declarations confirming assessments are the student’s own work
ensuring that all sources of information are appropriately acknowledged
taking all reasonable precautions to ensure work cannot be copied by other students
not providing a copy of assessments to other students.

3.1.2 Educator

Educators are responsible for:

explaining to students what academic misconduct is, and providing guidance on how to maintain academic and research integrity and outcomes to avoid academic misconduct
ensuring students understand the academic standards required for individual and group work
creating a learning environment and assessment tasks that reduce the likelihood of academic misconduct
ensuring all students have access to equal and consistent learning and assessment conditions
ensuring there are processes in place to maintain the security and confidentiality of records relating to allegations of academic misconduct on CIT information systems
in the case of Australian Apprentices and student scholarship holders, reporting, in writing to the sponsor, disciplinary action taken against a sponsored student, with regard to privacy considerations
ensuring assessment is accompanied by a completed copy of the student declaration
being vigilant in the detection of cheating, plagiarism, or use of generative artificial intelligence tools to complete assessments, when educator permission has not been specifically granted
reviewing submitted assessments to detect instances of poor academic scholarship or academic misconduct
being aware of, and respecting, cultural backgrounds and practices
providing transparent and consistent feedback to students about issues relating to referencing and academic integrity
setting a high standard of academic integrity through their own teaching practice.

3.1.3 Heads of Department

Heads of Department are responsible for:

assisting educators to thoroughly understand academic integrity and academic misconduct
ensuring consistent department messaging to students about expected academic integrity, and consequences of academic misconduct
investigating all allegations of academic misconduct in their delivery area
deciding whether academic misconduct has occurred and if any disciplinary action is required
deciding whether a student is given a chance to re-sit an assessment, complete another assessment task or be deemed not satisfactory without an opportunity for a re-sit
sharing successful strategies for managing academic misconduct as part of regular teaching area team meetings
communicating with relevant parties about disciplinary action where academic misconduct is substantiated.

3.1.4 College Directors

College Directors are responsible for:

ensuring academic integrity is consistently maintained in the college
investigating and managing appeals (refer Academic Appeals Policy and Procedure)
maintaining a college register of all instances of academic misconduct and providing regular reports to Academic Council.

3.1.5 Education Design and Delivery Lead

The Education Design and Delivery Lead may, based on the recommendation of a college director, exclude a student from a subject or course, where there has been more than one instance of academic misconduct.

3.1.6 Library services

Library Services is responsible for:

assisting heads of department and educators to thoroughly understand academic integrity, and academic misconduct
providing guidance on intellectual property rights and responsibilities
providing students with course-specific examples of good practice to demonstrate academic integrity and referencing techniques.

4. Documentation

4.1 Related Legislation/Regulation

4.2 Related Policy and Procedures

4.3 Related Documents

Information for Senior Secondary students
Referencing at CIT
Plagiarism Guide
Copyright Guide

5. Definitions

All terminology used in this policy is consistent with definitions in the CIT Definitions of Terms. Specific definitions relating to this policy include:

Academic Integrity	Educators, students, and all members of the CIT community act with honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility. Adapted from TEQSA's definition
Academic misconduct	Academic misconduct includes, but is not limited to: cheating, plagiarism, collusion and improper collaboration during the preparation of any prescribed assessment tasks. Student Academic misconduct is prohibited and any violations by students may result in academic penalties. Credit to William Angliss Institute
Cheating	The dishonest use of information or misleading or deceptive submission of work in any academic context may take the form of, but is not limited to: using and/or copying from electronic accessories (translators, diaries, dictionaries, programmable calculators, mobile phones, smart watches etc.) as observed during an assessment hiring or asking another person (or organisation) to complete an assessment, prepare or produce content or any other material used for academic assessment purposes on their behalf submitting identical work (or a significant portion of) used in another subject or course by the student unauthorised communications with other students during the exam or assessment copying from someone else's test or assessment using unauthorised material, such as a textbook, notebook, cheat notes or any other written materials during an assessment communicating material to other students in an assessment leaving answers exposed for other students to copy copying another student's work and submitting it as their own.
Collusion	Means an agreement between a student and another person(s) to deceptively present academic work outside stipulated requirements, such as when two people work together on an assignment/assessment, which is designed to be completed individually. It is acceptable to get help from or provide help to others. It is also acceptable to discuss ideas, strategies, and approaches to a particular piece of academic work. However, it is not acceptable to submit work not undertaken independently. Group work must be undertaken according to instructions given in the same manner.
Generative artificial intelligence	Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a series of tools that leverage vast amount of information available on the Internet to quickly generate text and code-based outputs in response to simple contextual prompts from a user.
Group work	Group work is the authorised act of a group of students producing either a common assessable work, or an individually assessed piece of work, as part of a larger project.
Intentional plagiarism	Plagiarism associated with intent to deceive.
Plagiarism	Actions by a student that use the ideas, words or work of another person, without acknowledging the sources of the ideas, words or work. Plagiarism may take several forms: direct copying of someone else's work such as phrases, paragraphs, graphs, tables or ideas without acknowledgment copying internet materials without referencing minor paraphrasing of other people's work, by changing words or altering phrases or paragraphs order without acknowledgment submitting work, which has been developed fully or partly by other people, on the student's behalf as if it were the work of the student.
Poor academic practice	Poor academic practice occurs when a student submits any type of assessment that does not properly acknowledge the origin of words, ideas, images, tables, diagrams, maps, code, sound and any other sources used in the assessment.
Unintentional plagiarism	Plagiarism associated with a lack of understanding of plagiarism or a lack of skill in referencing /acknowledging others’ work (this is a breach of this policy).

6. Policy Contact Officer

Executive Director, Education Futures and Students.

Contact CIT Student Services on (02) 6207 3188 or email infoline@cit.edu.au for further information.

7. Procedures

This policy is implemented through the associated procedures. Authority to make changes to the procedures rests with the policy owner.

POLICY INFORMATION

Policy No: CIT2024/612
Approved: April 2024
Next Review: April 2026
Category: Student Policies, Training Policies
Policy Owner: Executive Director, Education Futures and Students

PROCEDURES/DOWNLOADS

Academic Integrity and Misconduct Procedure
(PDF File 269.7 KB)