Procedure for processing student violations of good academic practice and contemptible conduct at the School of Business and Governance

Responsible department:
Approved by Dean’s Order No. 1-24/183 of 06.06.2022

1. Procedure for processing student violations of good academic practice and contemptible conduct at School of Business and Governance is based on the following documents:
academic policies and the principles of academic ethics. The following is deemed to be violation of good academic practice in academic policies:
1.1. use of support materials during assessment, except those explicitly allowed by the teacher;
1.2. use of any help from others (prompting, copying, copying homework, using learning support forums, buying papers, etc.) during assessment or violation of the examination rules by the student;
1.3. plagiarism, i.e. submitting another person’s writing under one’s own name or extensive rewording of someone else’s work, referencing, or quoting without proper academic reference;
1.4. re-submission of one’s own work when this has previously been taken into account in
the final grade;
1.5. participating in an assessment for another student or allowing another person to participate in an assessment in one’s own name;
1.6. malicious disclosure of papers assessed;
1.7. deliberate submission of untrue information (false information) in one’s assignments, applications (including APEL), etc.;
1.8. damaging the reputation of the university, which includes providing ungrounded negative judgements concerning the university, unauthorised mediation of the study
opportunities and services provided by the university or compilation and dissemination of materials promoting the university for the purposes of material gain and other activities causing material damage or reputational damage to the university;
1.9. other cases arising from the Code of Academic Ethics established by the Senate.

2. Contemptible conduct is a violation of generally accepted standards of conduct. All principles stated in this document for violation of good academic practice apply equally to cases of contemptible conduct.

3. The Dean of the School of Business and Governance (hereafter Dean) forms a Committee for Handling the Violations of Academic Practice and Contemptible Conduct (hereafter Committee). Committee members include, based on their position, the Vice-Dean of Academic Affairs, Programme Directors, and representative from the Student Council of School of Business and Governance. The Dean appoints the Head of the Committee. The Committee has a quorum for making a decision if the Head of the Committee and at least two Committee members participate in the decision-making. If needed, the Committee may involve experts in the work of the Committee. A secretary, who is not a member of the Committee, appointed by the Dean will be responsible for the administering the activities of the Committee and for registration of cases.

4. The teacher determines the organisation of assessments. The teacher informs students at the beginning of the course about the rules of the assessment, requirements set to the form and content of student assignments and checks the adherence to academic practice.

5. If the student uses any help from others or otherwise violates good academic practice, the teacher has the right to remove the student from the assessment or refuse to assess the submitted assignment. In both cases the teacher shall grade the specific assessment “0” (failed) or “M” (failed) or set the final mark at “0” or “M”.

6. Within 5 working days from the violation of good academic practice, the teacher shall forward to the Secretary of the Committee:
6.1. A notice (see Appendix) with their recommendation for only registering the incident or for further handling by the Committee, depending on the severity of the violation;
6.2. All evidence, e.g. e-mails, exam sheets, aiding materials used at an exam, home assignment solutions, plagiarism reports, written explanations, photos, etc.

7. When plagiarism in a graduation thesis submitted to the defence is suspected, the Head of the Defence Committee shall decide whether plagiarism has occurred. If plagiarism is detected, he/she shall not allow the thesis to be submitted for defence and he/she shall forward materials related to the violation of good academic practice to the Secretary of the Committee, as stated in point 6. If the incident does not require additional handling by the Committee, only the suggestion for registration will be marked onto the notice. Otherwise additional handling by the Committee will be requested.

8. If the teacher or the Head of the Defence Committee requests additional handling of the case by the Committee, the Committee will handle the violation of good academic practice in most cases in electronic form. Depending on the case (disputability of evidence, validity of student’s arguments, lack of common understanding regarding the violation of good academic practice, etc.) or upon the grounded application by the student, the case shall be handled during a hearing.

9. The Committee has the right to ask for explanations concerning the violation of good academic practice from the student by giving 3 working days to respond. The student has the obligation to present his/her position regarding the violation of good academic practice to the Committee. The Committee has a right to ask for additional written or oral explanations from other persons involved in the case. Oral statements shall be protocolled.

10. The Committee issues, within 10 calendar days from the registration of the violation of good academic practice at the Committee, a recommendation to the Dean for issuing a letter of reprimand to the student or requesting exmatriculation of the student. On reasonable grounds the Committee may handle the violation of good academic practice for additional 30 calendar days. The Committee may end the handling of the case if it finds that issuing the letter or reprimand or exmatriculation of the student is not justified.

11. The Secretary of the Committee shall inform:
11.1. the person submitting the notice, the student, and Programme Director of the student’s programme about the registration of the case;
11.2. the person submitting the notice, the student and other parties involved in the case about the results of the handling of the case.
12. The student has a right to dispute decisions and procedures stated in this document by following the conditions and deadlines set in the Administrative Procedure Act and Academic Policies of TalTech