General misconduct
Unlike academic integrity breaches (sometimes referred to as academic misconduct) where students’ conduct is considered inappropriate due to behaviours that relate to assessment; general misconduct relates to inappropriate behaviours that harm the University, another student, a member of staff, or breach of the Student Code of Conduct.
Under the current regulation all cases of General Misconduct should be reported to the Academic Progress and Integrity (API) team. This process is pursuant to Regulation 4.1(1) – General Misconduct
If a Unit Chair suspects General Misconduct, an allegation needs to be submitted to the Faculty Student Misconduct Committee (FSMC) for consideration.
General Misconduct includes (but is not limited to):
- Behaviour that breaches the student code of conduct
- Acting in an aggressive or threatening manner
- Abuse of social media or the IT infrastructure of the University
- Providing false information to the University
- Behaving in a manner not appropriate to the codes of conduct for the profession being pursued through the course of study
In cases where the API team finds that a student has potentially committed General Misconduct, cases will be referred to the University Student Conduct Department where a formal hearing may be held if required.
Penalties for proven General Misconduct range from warnings to permanent exclusion from a course or the University.
Suspected incidents of General Misconduct should be referred directly to bl-misconduct@deakin.edu.au for further advice on how to make an allegation.
In Week 1 of the trimester, have a conversation with your students about general misconduct and bring to their attention the student code of conduct. They might get this information more than once, but as it’s important information, learning about the code of conduct in more than one unit emphasises the importance of their rights and responsibilities in this regard.
