Academic Misconduct: Understanding the Process
What is a Breach of Academic Integrity?
A breach of academic integrity occurs when a student demonstrates behaviours that are inconsistent with the values of academic integrity while undertaking academic work for review or assessment. A breach of academic integrity may involve dishonesty, an intention to deceive or gain unfair advantage, or a careless disregard for expected standards and conduct in academic work.
Whether intentional or unintentional, all acts, omissions, schemes, or tactics that undermine the core values of academic integrity are considered a breach of academic integrity.
The Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure outlines CQUniversity’s approach to upholding academic integrity and the processes for managing potential breaches.
More information on breach types, can be found on the Academic Integrity website.
What Happens if I’ve Been Reported?
If someone (Unit Coordinator, Educator or another party) identifies a concern with your assessment that might be a possible breach of academic integrity, here’s what happens next:
The university will investigate any potential breach of academic integrity. During this investigation you may be contacted by the Unit Coordinator or Educator to have an informal discussion about the assessment to assist with determining if a potential breach has occurred. While an investigation is happening, you may have temporary sanctions placed on your enrolment which restrict access to transcripts or places holding grades on your assessment/unit.
If you are in your first period of study, you may be issued an Inappropriate Academic Conduct (IAC) letter if it has been determined that the conduct was not intentional, and further education is required. If you’ve received an IAC, your assessment will be marked as per the marking rubric, but you may be requested to seek guidance from the Academic Learning Centre to ensure you understand where you need to improve your academic communication skills.
If you do not meet the requirements to be issued an IAC, an Invitation to Respond (ITR) will be sent to your CQU student email address. An ITR will outline the allegation, including evidence, and explain how to respond. You should prepare your written response and collate all evidence you’d like to include before submitting your Student Response Form as you can only make one submission. If you have issues or need to add more once you’ve submitted your initial response you can do so by emailing academicintegrity@cqu.edu.au.
While your case is being investigated, the University may apply temporary administrative restrictions to your enrolment. These may include temporary limits on accessing your transcript or pauses on releasing grades while the investigation is underway. These temporary measures support the integrity of the investigation and will be lifted once the case is finalised.
If you received an ITR, you have seven working days to provide a written response and all relevant evidence. If you have compassionate or compelling circumstances impacting you that mean you need more time to respond, you can request an extension of up to seven working days by contacting the Academic Integrity Unit. Your request must include supporting evidence.
Your Response Matters: Your explanation, evidence, and honesty can influence the outcome. You can also seek help from Student Advocacy Officers or the Academic Learning Centre to prepare your response. If you don’t respond, the case will still go ahead based on the available evidence.
If the assessment under investigation is a group assessment or potential collusion, each individual student will have the right to reply, a group response cannot be submitted for all students.
In most instances, the assigned Case Decision Maker will consider the case based on the evidence and your written response. However, a Case Decision Maker may request to have an interview with you if they feel it is necessary to gain further information for a case. If this is required, you’ll receive a follow up email to book a suitable time for this to occur.
After reviewing all evidence, the Case Decision Maker will determine the outcome and any penalties to be applied:
- If the Case Decision Maker determines that no breach has occurred, the case can be Dismissed with no penalty; OR
- If theCase Decision Maker determines a breach has occurred, outcomes range from an IAC warning through to penalties, depending on the severity. You’ll be notified in writing, and you can appeal the decision if you believe there are grounds to do so.
You can view the range of outcomes and penalties in the Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure.
What are my rights?
The University and its employees will respond to academic integrity breaches in a confidential, procedurally fair, equitable, transparent, and timely manner.
You have the right/opportunity to:
- be advised of and know the details of any allegation
- seek assistance from the Academic Learning Centre to understand the academic integrity breach
- to respond and provide your own evidence regarding any allegation
- be treated without bias
- have a decision made on an objective and unbiased assessment of the evidence
- seek assistance from a Student Advocacy Officer when formulating your response
- appeal an outcome by submitting an appeal to the University’s Academic Appeals Committee (Grounds for appeal are required to be met as per the Academic Appeals Policy and Procedure)
- seek assistance from a Student Advocacy Officer when making an application to appeal.
Counselling and Wellbeing
Explore our counselling and wellbeing services, designed to support you personally and academically as a CQU student. We're here to help you enhance your study experiences and be what you want to be.
Academic Learning Centre
The ALC provides information, advice and resources to assist you with many of the requirements of study at CQUniversity.
Help Resolving Issues
Learn more about the advocacy support for academic and student conduct matters at CQU and how to access student ombudsman services.
Understanding Penalties
You have received an academic integrity breach outcome letter from CQUniversity outlining the educational outcomes and/or penalties that apply to your case. The information below explains what each penalty means and where to seek further advice.
Only the outcomes and/or penalties listed in your notification letter apply to you.
If any penalty results in a fail grade for a unit, you should contact Course Management by submitting the Ask a Course Adviser form, as this may impact your future enrolments.
The Academic Integrity Unit will refer your case to the Academic Learning Centre (ALC) within 5 working days of the outcome letter.
The ALC will contact you to attend an online workshop to support your understanding of Academic Integrity.
You must attend the appointment within 4 weeks to meet this requirement.
You must complete the Foundations of Academic Integrity (FAI) unit within 28 days of the outcome letter.
- If you have not completed FAI in the past 12 months, you will be re-enrolled and must complete the unit.
- If you have completed FAI within the past 12 months, you should review the content to refresh your understanding and prevent future breaches.
Your assessment will be marked according to the normal assessment rubric. Marks may be deducted in the sections where academic integrity issues occurred, based strictly on how the work meets the rubric criteria. This is not a separate misconduct penalty — it is standard rubric marking.
In some cases, the decision-maker may apply a downgrade instead of, or in addition to, rubric-based deductions. A downgrade is an overall reduction to the final assessment result as a misconduct penalty. Your graded assessment will outline how any downgrade or deduction has been applied.
Your Unit Coordinator or Educator will provide instructions for completing the reattempt or resubmission.
The maximum result available for the new assessment is 50% or the pass mark specified in the unit profile, training and assessment plan, or equivalent document.
Your Unit Coordinator or Educator will provide details about the replacement assessment.
The highest possible result for the unit will be a pass grade.
You will receive zero marks or a “Not Competent” result for the assessment.
This may affect your overall unit result, particularly if the assessment is a mandatory or special requirement for the unit.
You will receive a Fail (F) or Not Competent (NC) result for the unit.
You should contact Student Service SPOT to discuss any required changes to your Study Plan.
The University will contact you with further information regarding the revocation.
If you have questions relating to your course planner, please contact Course Management by submitting the Ask a Course Adviser form.
You will be excluded from enrolling in units for a specified period.
Access to university systems and facilities may also be restricted, and additional conditions may apply when you return to study.
If you have questions relating to your course planner, please contact Course Management by submitting the Ask a Course Adviser form. International students should seek advice regarding any potential visa implications.
You will receive further communication from the University regarding this exclusion.
Under the Admission to CQUniversity Coursework Courses Policy and Procedure, you may apply for re-admission after a minimum exclusion period of five years, and at five-year intervals thereafter if re-admission is refused.
Frequently Asked Questions
Once you have gathered all your evidence and written your explanations for the issues identified, it is time to process your response to the allegation. Your Invitation to Respond letter includes instructions and a link to submit your response and evidence. If you have issues with accessing the Student Response Form you should email the Academic Integrity Unit.
You should include any evidence that helps demonstrate how you completed your assessment and the steps you took in your work process. Useful types of evidence may include (but not limited to):
- Screenshots of your internet search history showing when and how you accessed the sources in your reference list. This can help demonstrate that you researched the topic during the time you were completing the assessment. If the use of generative AI was permitted for your assessment, you may also include screenshots of your GenAI chat, prompts, or drafts to show how you used the tool appropriately and transparently.
- Drafts of your assessment, including versions with date and time stamps, to show the progression of your work and how your ideas developed over time.
Copies of the references or sources you used when preparing your assessment.
You can upload up to 15 attachments with your Student Response Form. If you need to provide more than this or need to add further information after submitting your initial response, you can email the Academic Integrity Unit.
If you do not respond within the allocated timeframe or withdraw from the unit prior to responding to the allegation, the outcome of the allegation will be determined on the supporting evidence as presented in the case and the Case Decision-Maker will allocate an outcome and/or penalty accordingly.
Your Unit Coordinator (UC) or Educator may contact you before an allegation is formally submitted, as an informal discussion can help clarify aspects of your assessment and assist in determining whether a potential breach has occurred.
Once the allegation has been submitted and the formal investigation process has begun, your case will be managed by the Academic Integrity Unit (AIU) and the assigned Case Decision Maker. At this stage, your UC or Educator may continue to clarify aspects of the assessment. However, once a case is referred to the Academic Integrity Unit, the process follows the Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure, and the UC/Educator has no role in determining the outcome of the investigation.
You can still seek support from services such as Student Advocacy or the Academic Learning Centre if you need help preparing your response.
While your assessment is under investigation, your grade for the affected assessment or unit may be temporarily withheld. This means your result might not be released until the academic integrity process is complete. This is a standard administrative step that helps maintain the integrity of the investigation.
Once a Case Decision Maker has reviewed the evidence and finalised the outcome, your grade will be released or updated accordingly. If no breach is found, your grade will be processed as normal.
Yes, you can continue with your studies while an academic integrity investigation is underway. Your enrolment remains active, and you can keep attending classes, accessing Moodle, and working on your other assessment tasks as normal.
However, depending on your course structure, you should seek advice from the Student Service SPOT if the assessment under investigation is a prerequisite or co‑requisite for another unit, as the temporary withholding of a grade may affect your progression. This ensures you understand any potential impacts and can plan your study pathway accordingly.
Due to the varied nature of academic integrity breaches, the University cannot provide a specific timeframe for the investigation or outcome.
Each case is reviewed individually and as efficiently as possible to ensure a fair and accurate result. Once a case is referred to the Academic Integrity Unit, it is managed independently of your UC/Educator, following the Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure.
The Academic Integrity Unit will contact you as soon as they are able, which in some instances may not be until after grade release or the end of term. Please continue to monitor your CQU student email for updates.
