Academic Integrity for UniSQ students

What is academic integrity?

Academic integrity means acting with the values of honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility in learning and research.

As a UniSQ student, you are part of an academic community and you are asked to:

act honestly and ethically in all your academic work and assessment tasks by only presenting work you have completed yourself.
give recognition to any direct quotes used from other authors or to those authors whose work has made an intellectual contribution to the contents of your work. Acknowledge your sources by using the referencing system relevant to your discipline.
acknowledge shared ownership of ideas in group projects or assessment tasks with a clear statement of individual’s contributions alongside your own original work.

Academic integrity matters - producing your own work, to the best of your ability means you have demonstrated what you have learnt and you have earned your qualifications. This will help you navigate opportunities and challenges in the workplace and succeed as a professional in your chosen career.

Academic Integrity Mandatory Training

The Student Academic Misconduct Procedure and Penalty Schedule requires students to undertake Student Academic Integrity Mandatory Training so you can learn about academic integrity, how academic misconduct is managed at UniSQ and resources to help you with your referencing and writing. You are only required to complete it once every 12 months and it will take you between 30-60 minutes to complete.

Each of your courses will restrict your access to the first assessment item submission link until you have completed the course. This means you need to complete the training by week 1 or 2 of semester, to ensure you can access your assessment submission links.

Changes to Mandatory Training 2023

The Academic Integrity Mandatory Training course has been updated and all completions were reset on 6 February 2023. This may affect your ability to access your assessment submission links after this date.

What you need to do:

If you completed the Academic Integrity Mandatory Training course prior to 14 November 2022 you are required to complete it again. This includes completing all module pages and quizzes. You will then be issued with a 2023 badge that is valid for 365 days. Only complete the course again after 7 February 2023.

If you completed the Academic Integrity Mandatory Training course after 14 November 2022, you will be issued with a 2023 badge on 7 February 2023 that is valid until 7 February 2024.

Why have we reset the course?

We have also taken feedback on board and reviewed our academic misconduct case data to identify where knowledge gaps may be occurring. The course has been updated to ensure you are best prepared for your upcoming studies. Some new content includes:

Use of artificial intelligence and paraphrasing generators – this may constitute contract cheating if you submit work that is not your own, or you use artificial intelligence generators without explicit permission in your assessment instructions
Self-plagiarism – unless authorised by your course examiner, you cannot resubmit your own work

Report a suspected academic cheating service

Contract cheating providers target students with their services through online advertising and social media messaging. If you come across one of these providers, you are able to report it to TEQSA via this link. Providing these services is against Australian law and use of these services is a breach of the UniSQ Student Academic Misconduct Procedure. To learn more about contract cheating, please visit the TEQSA website. This website also has translated resources available.

How do I ensure my own academic integrity?

Student academic misconduct encompasses all behaviours:

involving the misrepresentation of academic achievement;
undermining the core values (honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility) of academic integrity;
breaching academic integrity, whether intentional or unintentional.

Academic misconduct includes, but is not limited to the following:

plagiarism and failures to correctly acknowledge (reference) sources of ideas or content;
contract cheating or paying for another person to prepare all or part of an assessment item;
collusion, such as any unauthorised collaboration in preparation or presentation of work, including allowing your work to be copied by others;
all forms of cheating in examinations and other assessment tasks;
fabrication or falsification of information or student identity.

UniSQ has a number of methods in place to detect academic misconduct. Any person, including a student, can report suspected academic misconduct.
Academic misconduct can carry significant penalties, including expulsion from study at UniSQ.

Avoid accidental plagiarism by referencing all work that isn’t your own.

Acknowledging your sources:

Strengthens your argument
Demonstrates you have read relevant material and can interpret and analyse theories and ideas
Distinguishes your ideas from other people’s

You must reference the following types of information:

thoughts, ideas, definitions or theories
research and other studies
statistics
information from the Internet, including images and media
designs or works of art
facts that are not common knowledge.

To learn specifics about referencing for your assessments, see UniSQ Library’s referencing guides. Different types of assessment may also have different referencing requirements, so make sure you follow the guidelines in your course StudyDesk or contact your course instructor.

We know that students sometimes feel under pressure and overwhelmed. That’s why we provide resources for you to learn study skills.

There are some useful tools on the UniSQ Library’s Study Support site including tools to help with:

For more help with study skills, academic writing, and assessment preparation, book a consultation with your Learning Advisor.
For more advice or support about academic integrity, finding information for assignments, copyright, and referencing, please book a consultation with your Liaison Librarian.

Don’t let other people read your assessments. Keep your work (and any copies of your work) with you at all times and remember to remove your USB from public computers.

If one student submits work that's completely or partly copied from another, both students can be charged with academic misconduct.

Don’t use internet services that will hide or change your physical or virtual address when submitting your assessment.

Turnitin is an online tool that checks your assignments to ensure they're your own work, and that you've acknowledged the work and ideas from other sources.

Learn more about how to use Turnitin to help you avoid unintentional plagiarism.

Check with your course instructor for specific requirements around Turnitin use in your courses and program.

Academic Integrity Quiz

Take our Academic Integrity quiz to find out which academic integrity champion you are!

Take the quiz!

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