Academic integrity

Our scholarly community upholds the academic integrity values of honesty, respect, trust, responsibility and support. These values inform and strengthen teaching, learning, research and professional practice at Macquarie.

As teachers and researchers, it’s our collective responsibility to equip students with the mindset and capacities to act ethically and with integrity during their course of study.

Know our academic integrity policies

• The Academic Integrity Policy webpage links to relevant codes of conduct and helpful definitions of academic activities.
• The Student Code of Conduct sets out students’ responsibilities in relation to academic conduct.
• The Student Discipline Procedure describes the process for managing academic misconduct, including breaches of academic integrity.

Model academic integrity in your teaching space

Completing the Academic Integrity Module (AIM) at 1000-level gives students foundational knowledge of academic honesty and ethical academic practice. However, the ongoing development of skills and capabilities that support academic integrity occurs within the context of course and unit teaching.

Encourage academic integrity amongst your students by:

• discussing the relationship of academic integrity to unit assessments. You may want to link this conversation back to the section on academic behaviours in AIM.
• gamifying the development of academic integrity-related skills
• using academic integrity scenarios to stimulate critical and ethical reflection
• promoting resources on referencing and citation available in StudyWISE, LibGuides and via the Learning Skills Unit.

Design assessments for academic integrity

• Set assessments that foster academic integrity. Helpful resources are provided by TEQSA (see p. 24) and the OLTC project “Contract Cheating and Assessment Design: Exploring the Connection”.
• Refer to the TEQSA AI toolkit for additional information and suggestions for risk mitigation.
• Use Turnitin and Feedback Studio to help detect contract cheating. Turnitin can also be used as a formative feedback tool to develop students’ writing and paraphrasing skills.

Investigate, report and manage alleged breaches of academic integrity

• Consult the University’s Managing and Reporting Academic Misconduct Toolkit wiki for procedural details.
• Complete a ‘Complaints and Misconduct Report’ to advise a suspected breach of academic integrity or to request an Authorship Investigate report.

Connect your students with support

Students struggling academically may be more inclined to breach academic honesty. Take a pro-active approach to referring your students to University support services:

• The Learning Skills Unit provides free academic skills and assignment help resources to all coursework students.
• Librarians can help students locate appropriate academic source materials.
• The WriteWISE program delivers peer-led academic writing support to all coursework students.
• The Numeracy Centre offers support with maths and numeracy-based subjects.
• Wellbeing provides students with holistic personal support.