On this page
- How we assess possible breaches of academic integrity
- Levels of academic misconduct and the possible outcomes
- How we investigate possible breaches of academic integrity
- Appealing after you have been found to have committed a breach of academic integrity
- Understand our academic integrity policy
- Related content
When you or your work don’t meet our standards of honesty, care and ethical responsibility, it's called a breach of academic integrity.
If your course coordinator or an examiner thinks you may have breached academic integrity, we use the process described in our Academic Integrity Procedures for Managing Student Breaches (for poor practice and minor breaches) and our Student Disciplinary Regulations (for misconduct) to investigate the problem and find a resolution.
How we assess possible breaches of academic integrity
We use three criteria to decide how serious a possible breach of academic integrity is.
1. Our expectations about what you should know (your experience)
We consider how long you have been at university, and how much you should know about academic standards.
- In your first year of undergraduate study, we understand that you may still be learning academic writing and study skills. When we assess a possible breach of academic integrity, we take this into account.
- By your second or third year of study, we expect you to have developed strong academic writing skills.
- Academic integrity breaches by postgraduate and doctoral students are regarded as very serious.
2. The nature of the breach
Breaches of academic integrity are more serious when they’re clearly deliberate and deceptive. You are deliberately breaching academic integrity if you:
- take notes or a mobile phone into a test or exam
- submit research data that has been fabricated
- help other students cheat
- hand in work that has been produced in part or completely by someone else or using generative artificial intelligence (if that has not been explicitly allowed). This includes contract cheating, or getting family or friends to generate your work.
3. The extent of the breach
If you are accused of a breach of academic integrity, we consider how much of your assignment is problematic. We look at the amount of material that is:
- copied from a source, and not properly referenced
- badly paraphrased, and not properly referenced
- produced by someone else or by artificial intelligence.
There is no firm rule about how much copied or paraphrased material is unacceptable. This will be assessed on a case-by-case basis.
Levels of academic misconduct and the possible outcomes
At Massey, there are different levels of breaches of academic integrity.
Poor academic practice
This is usually an inadvertent and minor deviation from good academic integrity practice, and will be managed by a course coordinator or qualification lead.
Poor academic practice includes:
- mistakes or carelessness with referencing, copying, crediting, or paraphrasing
- unintentional, flawed, or naive actions that don’t comply with academic integrity.
If your assessment is regarded as poor academic practice, the aim is to provide you with an educative opportunity to learn how to comply with academic integrity standards in future. Besides educative guidance, the outcome might be:
- a warning
- a recommendation to undertake an appropriate learning support activity
- repeating the whole or a part of the assignment, with or without a reduced maximum mark
- a reduced mark (up to zero) for the assessed component.
A case managed as poor academic practice won’t affect your academic record, or be entered into the Misconduct Register.
Minor breach
This is an academic integrity breach that is more serious than poor academic practice but less serious than misconduct. It will usually be investigated and resolved by an Academic Integrity Officer.
Minor breaches include:
- minor disregard of assessment instructions
- disregard or negligence in paraphrasing or referencing
- minor cases of unauthorised use of artificial intelligence.
Outcomes where minor breaches have been confirmed
If you commit a minor breach, you might:
- get a warning
- be required to undertake an appropriate learning support activity
- have to repeat the assessment or part of it (with or without a reduced mark)
- get a reduced mark for the assessment or part of the assessment
- get a zero for the assessment.
- fail the course.
A minor breach will be entered into the Misconduct Register, but will not appear on your academic transcript.
Misconduct
More serious breaches of academic integrity are regarded as misconduct.
The Academic Integrity Officer in your college or the University Proctor usually investigates allegations of misconduct and decides on an appropriate outcome if the allegation is substantiated.
Examples of misconduct
These offences would likely be considered misconduct:
- deliberate dishonesty or intention to deceive
- plagiarising that is not minor in terms of its nature or extent
- postgraduate/doctoral research misconduct
- unauthorised use of artificial intelligence
- contract cheating
- getting someone else to sit an exam for you or to complete an assignment for you.
Outcomes where misconduct has been confirmed
If, after investigation, we believe you have committed misconduct, the outcome might be:
- all the possible outcomes as for a minor breach
- period of suspension from Massey
- exclusion from Massey.
The outcome will depend on how serious the breach is.
If you are found to have committed a minor breach or misconduct, it will be recorded in the Misconduct Register. This means that if you commit another breach in the future, the penalty might be more serious. It also means that we may have to disclose this when it is lawfully required to do so, for example in the case of professional registration with an industry body.
How we investigate possible breaches of academic integrity
If you're suspected of breaching academic integrity, the process we follow depends on how serious the possible breach is.
- If a Massey staff member thinks you have committed Poor Academic Practice, they may invite you to discuss the problem and decide on an appropriate outcome informally, or write to you accordingly.
- If you're alleged to have committed a minor breach, an Academic Integrity Officer will investigate the allegation and manage the process in accordance with the Academic Integrity Procedures for Managing Student Breaches.
- If you're alleged to have committed academic misconduct, an Academic Integrity Officer or the University Proctor will investigate the allegation and manage the process in accordance with the Student Disciplinary Regulations.
Formal investigation process
You can read about the investigation processes for:
- poor academic practice and minor breaches, in the Academic Integrity Procedures for Managing Student Breaches, and
- misconduct in the Student Disciplinary Regulations.
In most cases you will be invited to a meeting to discuss the problem. This is your chance to explain what has happened from your point of view.
- You can attend the meeting in person or online.
- You're allowed to bring a legal representative to the meeting, if you want to.
- Or, you can bring a person or persons to support you. This could be someone from the Student Advocacy Service, the Student Counselling Service, your whānau or a friend.
- You will get a letter to let you know about the outcome of the investigation, and any outcome imposed for the breach.
- In most cases, you can appeal the decision.
Appealing after you have been found to have committed a breach of academic integrity
You can appeal the findings and/or outcome of minor breach or misconduct as long as:
- you have not already agreed about the outcome, and
- you follow the rules about appeals in the Academic Integrity Procedures for Managing Student Breaches or the Student Disciplinary Regulations.
Understand our academic integrity policy
Our academic integrity policy isn't just about breaches – we also support you to produce work of a high academic standard. It outlines Massey’s expectations of academic integrity, and explains why academic integrity is important for the university, for students, and for the value of our qualifications.
The policy also outlines the university’s commitment to an educative approach to maintaining academic integrity, in 5 focus areas:
- Education: Massey will share information and resources about academic integrity, why it is important to uphold, and what the expectations are.
- Prevention: Massey will monitor and restrict access to known sources of academic cheating, and will design assessments in such a way as to prevent cheating as far as possible.
- Detection: Massey uses a range of detection strategies, including human judgement, proctoring, and the use of detection software, to detect possible breaches of academic integrity.
- Governance: Massey has published policies, procedures, codes, and regulations to guide students on what is expected to comply with academic integrity standards, and what the consequences are for not doing so.
- Administration: Each college has Academic Integrity Officers who manage and provide guidance on academic integrity matters. Massey also records all cases where either a minor breach or academic misconduct has been confirmed, and reports on these in a way that protects privacy and confidentiality to the extent required by law.
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