POLICY ON ACADEMIC MISCONDUCT

Malpractice is the deliberate falsification of records or influencing the systems within the school for the purpose of obtaining certificates without due assessment. This may involve students, school staff or others. The school has the following procedure to report and investigate malpractice.

Malpractice by students

It is a grave offence to engage in any form of malpractice. The following are examples of malpractice by students:

1. Plagiarism: Plagiarism is the act of copying and presenting as the student’s own work, the whole or part(s) of another person’s work and without appropriately acknowledging the source. This includes presenting artwork, images, words, thoughts, inventions and discoveries.
2. Collusion: Collusion involves presenting work produced in a group as individual work. The school encourages teamwork and collaboration which are essential skills in many sectors and academic disciplines. However, such activities should involve the use of minutes, task allocation and agreeing outcomes. In such cases, work students submit must contain individual contributions that are different from the rest of the team’s work.
3. Impersonation: Impersonation is presenting work for another student pretending to be that student or letting someone else do this for you.
4. Fabrication of evidence.
5. Refusal to follow the instructions in examinations or assessments.
6. Misuse of material provided for assessment or examination.
7. Using unauthorized material and exchange of unauthorized communication in examinations and assessments.
8. Cheating to gain an unfair advantage.

Investigation of allegations of malpractice

The College will appoint a member of the faculty to investigate any such allegations. The process involves the following:

The facts relating to the allegation will be established in order to decide if malpractice has occurred, such as:

1. Authenticity of assignments or answer scripts.
2. Whether or not the student is still studying towards the qualification after obtaining the certificate.
3. Whether or falsified records were used to obtain the certificate.

A course of action, including remedial and punitive action against the parties involved, will be decided upon and implemented.

A report will be submitted to the Senate once the investigations have been completed, giving in details of the evidence, conclusions and recommendations.