After you’ve submitted the online report via the Feedback, Complaints and Misconduct Reporting system your Academic Integrity Officer (AIO) will assess the severity of the potential breach, based on what you have reported and supplied. At this stage there are two possible outcomes:
OUTCOME 1: The breach does not warrant further investigation.
In this instance, you’ll be asked to contact the student and provide them with educative counselling. The educative counselling should involve information about:
- where the breach occurred in the assessment,
- how to prevent further breaches,
- who to contact if academic support is required, and
- the consequences of further breaches.
After the educative counselling, you should instruct the student to re-submit their work, correcting the academic integrity issue.
NOTE: As this is an informal way of handling the matter, your AIO needs to be notified when you have completed the educative counselling so that it can be noted on the Students Record of Conduct. The matter is then complete.
OUTCOME 2: The breach does warrant further investigation.
In this instance, your AIO will send a letter of allegation to the student. The AIO may then meet with the student and/or receive a written response from the student. You will not be a part of the allegation process, so it’s important you provide all the relevant documentation at the time of making a report.
Based on all information provided in the report, and from the student, the AIO will make a decision, on the balance of probability, as to whether a breach has occurred. They will then determine, considering any mitigating factors, the appropriate sanction/s as outlined in the Academic Integrity Breach Procedure:
Level one sanctions:
- a warning,
- allow a corrected version of the assessment to be submitted,
- allow a corrected version of the assessment to be submitted, with a maximum grade for the assessment being a Pass, and
- zero marks in the assessment item.
Level two sanctions:
- a direction to complete or re-complete the Academic and Workplace Ethics module,
- failure in the Unit,
- suspension from the course, for a period not exceeding one year.
In the final part of this process, the AIO will complete the Investigative Report and send it, and a Notification of Outcome email, to the student. You will be copied into this correspondence to the student so it’s important that you action the Sanction that is provided to the student.
As a handy reference for this process, you can print or bookmark the In-class Guide to Academic Integrity Breaches. You can also always talk to your Academic Integrity Officer. As well as being the assessor of suspected breaches of academic integrity, they’re also a resource for you. Their knowledge of academic integrity process and policy make them one of our most important resources in maintaining our standards of academic integrity at Macquarie University – and they’re here to help you.
Academic Integrity Resources
- Feedback, Complaints and Misconduct Reporting online form
- Macquarie University’s Academic Integrity Policy outlines the principles, procedures, responsibilities, and practices that underpin the University’s commitment to promoting and upholding academic integrity.
- The Macquarie University Academic Integrity Breach Procedure provides information about procedures, reporting, and helpful staff resources for dealing with suspected breaches of academic integrity. It also includes the sanctions that can be applied when a student has been found to have breached the Academic Integrity Policy.
- In-class Guide to Academic Integrity Breaches
- Unit Convenor Guide to Academic Integrity Breaches
- Macquarie University Academic Integrity website
- Academic Integrity Breach Management wiki page. Here you can find the list of Academic Integrity Officers, “How To” articles, the Academic Integrity Toolkit and more.
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