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Develop your academic integrity

There are many ways you can build and ensure your academic integrity.

Top tips

Know what constitutes academic misconduct

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 page 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.   
Tell us how you would spend a day and we will reveal what academic integrity champion you are. This is a short quiz that should take no more than 5 minutes to complete and will result in some tailored tips to reinforce your academic integrity.