Version Information
Fri, 31 Mar 2023
Approved by: Academic Board
Current Version: V1.2
Replaces Version: V1.1
Next Review: Wed, 31 May 2023
Domain:
Institute
Academic Integrity Policy
Purpose
As a provider of professionally accredited courses, Metavision Institute is committed to upholding high academic standards and protecting the academic integrity of its courses and operations by providing clear information and educational strategies. Academic dishonesty devalues the quality of teaching and learning and contravenes this policy
Scope
This policy applies to all Metavision staff and students.
Definitions
Academic misconduct includes:
- infringing copyright laws,
- improperly obtaining information with the intent to commit plagiarism,
- acting dishonestly or improperly in assessment tasks and/or examinations,
- plagiarising another person’s work by failing to appropriately acknowledge or reference their work in assessment tasks,
- presenting another person’s work, entirely or in part, as the student’s own work,
- copying another student’s work entirely or in part in assessment tasks, to gain unfair academic advantage,
- falsification of research data,
- misleading academic staff about the student’s ability, skills and capacity for original work, and/or
- assisting another student to commit plagiarism.
Plagiarism: the reproduction of someone else's words, ideas or findings as the student’s own work and presenting them as their own work. Plagiarism includes:
- copying, citing or paraphrasing a writer’s published work (in electronic form or hard copy) without appropriately acknowledging the original source,
- using facts, information and ideas derived from a source without acknowledgement,
- submitting an assessment task to be marked that is not the student’s own work (in part or fully),
- copying an assessment task from another student and submitting as the student’s own work (in part or fully),
- fabricating references or using incorrect references in assessment tasks, and/or
- submitting another person’s presentation, program, spreadsheet, or other work with only minor alterations.
Self-plagiarism: submitting or using a portion of an assessment task previously submitted by the student and marked, unless the assessment task is in a capstone unit.
Policy
1. The Metavision Institute is committed to high academic standards and expects staff and students to understand and respect the principles of academic integrity as members of a scholarly community.
2. Metavision Institute provides students with information on what constitutes academic misconduct and provides educative strategies and resources to avoid academic misconduct in the Orientation program for new students and in the Student Handbook.
3. All assessment tasks submitted for marking at the Metavision Institute must be students’ own independent work. Students are required to sign a cover letter for each assessment task submitted for marking that indicates the assessment task is their own work.
4. Identification of plagiarism and other forms of academic misconduct.
Academic teaching staff and assessors will use the following mechanisms to systematically check for instances of plagiarism and other forms of academic misconduct:
- Academic teaching staff and markers will check for instances of assignment tasks with a high level of similarity.
- When two or more submitted assignments are similar, academic teaching staff and markers will cross-check the assessments using the ‘Compare Document’ function in Word, for annotation of similarities.
- Academic teaching staff and markers will undertake online searches of extracts of assignments as a means of identifying whether assessment tasks have been copied from the internet or other sources without appropriate acknowledgement, or without paraphrasing.
- Academic teaching staff and markers will be vigilant for instances of summative assessment tasks of a markedly different standard than the student’s past assessment performance and identify when the improvement is not likely to be the result of improvement through formative assessment.
5. Prevention of plagiarism
The Metavision Institute aims to prevent plagiarism by:
- Revising assessments and case studies on a regular basis to prevent students using other students’ work as their own,
- Using authentic and reflective assessment tasks, including audiovisual recordings of practice sessions, which are demonstrably the students’ own work, and
- Updating unit reading lists on a regular basis.
Implementation
- In responding to allegations of academic misconduct made by academic teaching staff against students, the Metavision Institute will observe the principles of procedural fairness.
- The Academic Director is to consider students’ progression in the course, any past incidences of academic misconduct, and differentiate between allegations of unintentional and intentional academic misconduct.
- Students will be notified in writing of an allegation of academic misconduct by the Academic Director, including a statement summarising the evidence for academic misconduct. They will be given an opportunity to respond in writing to the allegation within five business days. If a student does not submit a written response, this will not prevent further action being taken.
- The Academic Director will consider the student’s response and make a decision on whether to proceed to a formal meeting. When the allegation of academic misconduct relates to a student incorrectly referencing an assessment task, and there are no previous instances of academic misconduct recorded, the Academic Director will meet informally with the student to provide information on academic referencing and how to avoid plagiarism.
- When the Academic Director decides to proceed to a formal meeting, the student will receive advance written notice of the meeting of five working days. They will be informed that they have the right to bring a support person to the meeting. The meeting may occur on-campus or online.
- Students will not be found guilty of academic misconduct without evidence of plagiarism, or unless they admit to academic misconduct.
- If the student is determined to have committed academic misconduct, the determination and penalty will be formally communicated to the student, including information on the right to appeal the Academic Director’s decision. The decision will be recorded on the student’s record and in the Student Register.
- An appeal of a decision made by the Academic Director will be addressed within the framework of the Student Grievance, Complaints and Appeals Policy (Academic).
- Penalties. Penalties for academic misconduct include:
- A requirement to resubmit the assessment task with appropriate revisions (for a first minor offence),
- A reduction in the marks allocated to the assessment task,
- A requirement to undertake another form of assessment task,
- A fail grade for the assessment,
- A fail grade for the unit, with the option to re-enrol at a future date,
- A probation period, requiring regular meetings with the Course Coordinator,
- A referral to additional academic support,
- Exclusion from the course with the option to re-enrol at a future date,
- Exclusion from the course without the option to re-enrol, and/or
- Withdrawal of an award.
Responsibilities
The Academic Board is responsible for oversight and regular review of this policy, and for ensuring that Metavision Institute takes appropriate preventative actions to reduce the incidence of plagiarism in assessment tasks and other forms of academic misconduct.
The Academic Director is responsible for:
- ensuring that education about academic integrity and standards, and the penalties for academic misconduct, is communicated to new students in their Orientation programs, via the Metavision Institute’s website and Student Handbook, and included in unit outlines,
- ensuring that new academic staff receive information on this policy in their induction and providing guidance to academic staff about academic integrity and academic misconduct,
- making evidence-based decisions about allegations of academic misconduct and applying appropriate penalties as outlined in this policy,
- conducting investigations of misconduct allegations,
- providing guidance to staff members and reviewing evidence,
- maintaining a register to record warnings that have been given to students about plagiarism (including when no formal action has been taken or penalty applied), penalties applied and the nature of those penalties. Records regarding a student's involvement in alleged plagiarism will be retained while the student is still enrolled or defers or takes leave, and
- reporting to the Academic Board annually on the incidence of academic misconduct and the outcomes of investigations.
Students are responsible for familiarising themselves with academic citation standards and the academic referencing style used at Metavision Institute (APA 7th edition), the Code of Conduct and Shared Responsibility, and the Assessment and Moderation Policy.
Related Documents
- Student Handbook