Academic Integrity for students
What is academic integrity?
Academic integrity is behaving in an honest, fair and responsible way in an academic setting. As a student at UWA, you're part of a community that values academic integrity, and there are important principles, rules and ways of behaving that are expected of you.
Academic integrity requires acknowledging the contributions of other people when using their ideas to support your work. It applies to all areas of your work, whether online or face to face, and whether it's an assignment, exam or research. You are expected to engage in the study skills and information provided to teach you about academic integrity and expected academic conventions. To display integrity shows others that you are honest and people can trust what you say, or in the case assignments, that they work that you submit has been completed by you unless you have indicated otherwise.
Why is Academic Integrity important?
You are investing your time and effort in studying for a degree, which will be a stepping stone to success in your chosen field or career. What you learn at UWA will set the foundation for your professional knowledge and practice. Therefore, it is important to give yourself the best chance of success by doing your assessment tasks with an honest attitude, and to avoid bad consequences like failing an assignment or being asked to leave the university.
The University is keen to maintain an educational environment that is marked by equity and transparency for all students. It therefore has a clear policy relating to student academic integrity. Students and staff should inform themselves about this policy (links below) and their associated rights and responsibilities whenever instances of a breach of academic integrity occurs.
Academic integrity is important for your future career as well as your studies at UWA. It demonstrates that you can be relied upon, trusted and that you will not behave in a dishonest way in the completion of any of your work.
UWA takes academic integrity seriously and there are various measures in place to the protect the integrity of our degrees.
-
What are the university’s responsibilities?
UWA has a requirement to uphold academic integrity, not only to retain the value of our degrees, but also as required by our external government legislator, TEQSA.
The University has various methods to ensure integrity, and all staff have a responsibility to promote and help maintain academic integrity through educating you as students on what integrity means. Staff also have a responsibility to detect academic misconduct and report this for investigation.
UWA is using additional software to support the detection into suspected academic misconduct. As part of the Turnitin suite of tools (Originality and Authorship), the University uses different platforms to detect suspected misconduct which covers plagiarism, collusion, contract cheating and other forms of outsourcing.
The Authorship tool shows indicators of when student assignments might have been outsourced to other people, such as companies, other students, friends of family. This behaviour constitutes contract cheating and is a form of academic misconduct as defined by the Academic Integrity Policy. Any assignments flagged as having potential contract cheating will be investigated further by your School and/or the Integrity and Standards Unit.
The University is also increasing its training for staff in how to detect other forms of academic misconduct, such as the inappropriate use of AI to complete assignments.
-
What are my responsibilities as a student?
As a UWA student you are a member of this University community, and you are asked to work to uphold the principles of academic integrity during your course of study.
The University Policy on Student Rights and Responsibilities, which sets out the expectations and responsibilities of students, specifically states that: “Every student has the responsibility to respect and uphold principles of scholarly integrity and adhere to the principles of ethical scholarship and academic integrity during the course of their studies at UWA”.
All students have a responsibility to:
- Familiarise themselves and act in accordance with this policy and expectations, and those of relevant programs and courses, by using the information and guidance provided by the University and staff;
- Meet any University requirements for students to undertake ethical scholarship training made available by the University, and seek additional assistance if needed;
- Submit original work for assessment which meets the requirements of Academic Integrity; and
- Avoid all acts which could be considered or perceived as academic misconduct.
-
Types of academic misconduct
Academic misconduct can take many forms (and not limiting to the following), some of which you may undertake accidentally:
- Plagiarism
- Collusion
- Exam cheating
- Contract cheating
- Artificial Intelligence – unauthorised/improper use
- Fabrication/falsification – deceit such as misrepresentation, unethical data use and falsification/fabrication of data
- File sharing
- Solicitation
- Editorial assistance – unauthorised/improper use
Remember, you always need to acknowledge where ideas were first presented, even if you were the original source. If you are allowed to use AI in your assignment, make sure that you clearly read the brief to understand the limits of what AI is or is not allowed to produce your work. You may be asked to save your prompts or different versions of your work, so always keep anything that you do as you create and complete your assignments.
Minimising academic misconduct (including plagiarism and other forms of cheating) is an important part of the University's commitment to extend positive educational approaches among students that will help reduce any instances of academic misconduct.
-
How to avoid Academic Misconduct
You can easily avoid academic misconduct by making sure that you never copy the work of others and follow the requirements of the assignment (as described in your assignment brief). Different types of assessments may have different academic conventions, especially in different disciplines, such as different ways to cite or reference the work of others in your submitted assignments. Make sure that you are familiar with these and review and engage with the content provided to you in your units.
Never copy the work of others without paraphrasing and/or referencing it (sometimes a direct quote is OK). Make sure that if you have taken the ideas, designs, theories, codes or text from anyone else you reference it properly. It needs to be clear to anyone reading your assignment where the work has come from – what is your work and what is not.
If you are completing group work, make sure that you submit any individual elements on your own, and that only the allowed group section is completed as a group. It is always OK to study together and share ideas, we encourage collaboration! But – collusion is a different thing! You need to make sure that you are aware of what constitutes academic misconduct and what our definitions are for the different types of behaviours. If ever in doubt, go to speak to staff in the Library or Academic Skills teams.
The following university resources can help you to better understand the importance of academic integrity and how to avoid academic misconduct:
-
Receiving an allegation of suspected academic misconduct or notification of academic concern
If you receive an allegation of suspected misconduct you will be provided with information on where to get help and advice, as well as any evidence related to the suspicion. You should always review this carefully so that you can respond to the allegation. If this suspicion is a mistake you can bring information to show that. If you did engage in misconduct, it is always better to be open and honest about this. We know that students can be under pressure from studies, work and adapting to life as a student, as well as pressures from family and others. Be open and honest when having conversations about your academic misconduct, we are here to help you and want to get you back on the right track. You can chat to the Guild at any time as well, through the student assist team: https://www.uwastudentguild.com/student-assist
-
Have you completed ACE (Academic Conduct Essentials)?A student must successfully complete the ACE module within the first teaching period of their enrolment. Failure to complete the module within this timeframe will result in the student's unit results from this teaching period being withheld. These results will continue to be withheld until students avail themselves of a subsequent opportunity to achieve a passing grade in the ACE module. In the event that students complete units in subsequent teaching periods without completing the ACE module, these results will similarly be withheld. Students will not be permitted to submit late review or appeal applications regarding results which have been withheld for this reason and which they were unable to access in the normally permitted review period.
-
Reporting student misconductIf you become aware of an instance of academic misconduct, please email [email protected] and include any relevant information including the unit, the assignment, the name of the student who you think may be cheating, and what type of misconduct you think has happened. The more information you include the better for an investigation. You can also seek support from your Tutor or Unit Coordinator.
-
Related Policies, Procedures and Regulation
-
Further Information
UWA is here to help you. We have a range of free and secure support services to assist you with assignments and exam preparation, so you can feel confident in completing your work to the best of your ability. We know that for some of you, you feel that there's extra pressure placed on you to succeed, so be sure to reach out for help if you are feeling nervous or stressed.