How do you manage cases of academic misconduct?
Academic misconduct undermines the principles of academic integrity. It weakens the culture of learning for all students and risks diminishing the quality of UOW degrees. It is for this reason that teaching staff must not only notice but must respond or report instances of alleged academic misconduct.
At UOW, it is the role of the Subject Coordinator to first investigate cases of alleged academic misconduct, by collecting evidence and interviewing the student. Once they have made a determination, the case gets passed onto the Academic Integrity Officer(AIO) to work out an appropriate penalty.
A sessional staff member or tutor may be asked to collate evidence of misconduct by a particular student, but it is not their role to investigate further.
Consult the Academic Misconduct (Coursework) Procedures for more detail about the decision making steps required by Subject Coordinators and Academic Integrity Officers (AIOs).
Once academic misconduct is reported, the University will provide educational interventions to students and support to staff help minimise the risk of future academic misconduct.
What counts as evidence?
Evidence of academic misconduct can be any relevant material presented in relation to an allegation of academic misconduct by a student. It may include the submitted assessment item, emails that suggest some kind of misconduct has occurred, Turnitin originality reports, transcripts of student interviews, or samples of any original sources that have been matched to the student’s submitted assessment work.
Who collects evidence?
When an instance of alleged academic misconduct comes to the attention of teaching staff or any other complainant – for instance, another student or other university stakeholder - they should immediately report this to the relevant Subject Coordinator, providing an explanation of their reasoning and any immediate evidence.
However, it is not the role of sessional teaching staff or other complainants to gather more evidence or to interview the student – this is the role of the Subject Coordinator.
Academic misconduct management
All teaching staff are encouraged to complete the AWARE Moodle module for managing cases of academic misconduct.
For advice about how to register for this module, contact academic-integrity@uow.edu.au
For queries about the management of academic misconduct at UOW, email: academic-integrity@uow.edu.au
Resources
- Academic Misconduct Management: Practicing interview techniques - Example of cases and some guidance on conducting and interview.
- Teacher notes when assessing: template - Template designed by Ann Rogerson to assist academic staff to record suspected cases during the marking process. This is not mandatory, but is available as a resource.