Policies and procedures

Faculty of Business policies

The Guide to Policies and Procedures of the Faculty is a reference source for policies and procedures relating to enrolment, examinations, assignments and appeals.

Faculty of Business Academic Misconduct policy 

1.  The Faculty of Business policy on Academic Misconduct in instances of cheating or collusion is defined as:

(i)  Cheating Policy

Where a student's submitted assignment is identified as being a reproduction of a work written by another person with minimal change, e.g. the author's name, or where there has been procurement from a third person or persons (financially remunerated, given in kind compensation or undertake the work gratis) to research and/or write assignments, it will be deemed as cheating – the student having stolen the other person's work - and processed according to Student Academic Misconduct Policy.

University Definitions define Cheating.
The term "cheating" includes, but is not limited to:

1. the use of any unauthorised assistance in taking oral or written tests, or examinations; 
2. the acquisition, without permission, of tests or other academic material belonging to the University, a member of its staff or a member of the student body;
3. providing or receiving information which is prejudicial to the fair conduct of the examination during the conduct of the examination;
4. tampering or attempting to tamper with any item used in the assessment of students;
5. failing to abide by directions from the examiner regarding the permitted level of collaboration between students on items submitted for assessment;
6. acquiring or attempting to acquire, possessing or distributing material not specifically authorised for use in the assessment process by the examiner in the course (unit) specification or on the front cover of the examination paper. Unauthorised material includes current examination question papers or part thereof in advance of the official distribution by the University to all examination candidates;
7. impersonating or attempting to impersonate another student in assessment activities.
8. transmission of information on the contents of an examination paper to another candidate who is still to sit that paper.

For the purposes of this definition, "unauthorised assistance" includes those methods of assistance not listed or not identified on the examination paper, or not otherwise specifically approved by the examiner.

(ii)  Collusion Policy

Collusion is a specific type of plagiarism that occurs when two or more students present joint work as if it was their own, independent work. A less well-defined issue is that of group work. The forming of a group to share ideas and assist in the development of assignments or projects is an accepted and encouraged practice. However, it is not acceptable for members of the group to submit identical answers to assignments by simply copying the work done as a group.

In some courses, the Examiner may advise that joint submissions are acceptable. This normally applies to major projects where several areas of expertise are required. Formal prior arrangements and approval is required and each member of the team will be required to sign a submission indicating they accept that each will receive the same mark. It should be noted that Examiners and/or Lecturers normally expect a higher standard of work in joint submissions.

With the above exceptions, all assignments must be composed and submitted individually and the Examiner is entitled to consider identical layout, identical mistakes, identical argument and identical presentation to be prima facie evidence of collusion.

Students are advised that their assessment items may be vetted for collusion using text comparison software.

University Definitions define Collusion as:

'Collusion is a specific type of cheating that occurs when two or more students fail to abide by directions from the examiner regarding the permitted level of collaboration between students on a piece of assessment. Identical layout, identical mistakes, identical argument and identical presentation in students' responses to a piece of assessment are evidence of collusion.'

2. ‘Failure to Cite' and Plagiarism Policies

The Faculty of Business policy on Academic Misconduct in instances of failure to cite or plagiarism defines the University policy in greater detail and is designed to ensure that in its implementation Faculty procedures are focused upon assisting students to learn when and how to apply the appropriate citation standards.  This educational approach is particularly important for students who have not been exposed to ‘western' standards of citation in their previous learning environments.  However experience suggests that many students from all educational backgrounds unintentionally fail to cite appropriately and thus all students are likely to benefit from this educational approach in their first semester of study at USQ.

(i)  ‘Failure to Cite' Policy

The Faculty of Business is committed to providing an educative response to instances of poor referencing detected early in students' careers. Therefore, when a student, in their first semester of study at USQ, submits an assessment item/s in which sources are not correctly and or fully and or consistently cited, the student will be deemed to have ‘failed to cite' these sources, rather than being deemed to have ‘plagiarised' these sources.  The student will then be required to formally undertake a USQ citation module*, which will offer specific instruction on correct citation procedures and strategies for the avoidance of plagiarism.  This policy does not apply to students who have previously received formally assessed instruction on correction citation procedures and or strategies for the avoidance of plagiarism, even if these students are in their first semester of study with USQ. In this case instances of ‘poor referencing' may be treated as instances of ‘plagiarism'.  

University Definitions define Failure to Cite as:

'Failure to cite is when students inadvertently fail to indicate, through referencing in their submitted assessment work, that another person's thoughts, writing, ideas or work are not their own. While it is recognised that scholarly work often involves reference to the ideas, data and conclusions of other scholars, intellectual honesty requires that such references be explicitly and clearly noted.'

(ii)  Plagiarism Policy

Following the first semester, instances in which the student's work is identified as failing to cite the source of one or more persons' work within their submitted assessment may be taken as prima facie evidence of intention to plagiarise and be processed according to University Regulation 5.10.

University Definitions define Plagiarism as:

'The term "plagiarism" includes, but is not limited to, the use, by paraphrase or direct quotation, of the published or unpublished work of another person without full and clear acknowledgement. Plagiarism is the action or attempt to take and use or present another person's thoughts, writing, ideas or work as their own to gain or produce unfair advantage. A common example of plagiarism is knowingly using the whole or part of another work without citation. While it is recognised that scholarly work often involves reference to the ideas, data and conclusions of other scholars, intellectual honesty requires that such references be explicitly and clearly noted.'

*Citation module currently under development. Previous procedures will be implemented until module is available.