Academic integrity requires academic responsibilities to be approached in an honest, moral and ethical way. Schools, teachers, parents/carers and others who support students in their learning — including the QCAA — are responsible for promoting and maintaining academic integrity. The QCAA recognises that schools and their staff act with integrity and uphold high standards of professional conduct in adhering to the procedures and guidelines in this handbook.
Schools promote academic integrity when they:
- emphasise the importance of ethical academic conduct and scholarship
- develop school processes to support sound academic practice
- ensure teachers, students and parents/carers have a clear shared understanding of expectations and responsibilities for maintaining academic integrity
- implement programs to improve students’ academic skills
- explicitly teach the use of appropriate processes and materials in academic work, including an understanding of ownership of information, ideas and images and critical and responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI)
- communicate the consequences and implications of academic misconduct clearly throughout the school community, with explicit reference to the use of AI.
When students genuinely demonstrate their learning, they achieve results based on their own work and effort. These results may lead to benefits such as lifelong learning, certification, employment, university entry or awards.
8.1.1 Responsibilities for promoting academic integrity
Schools are responsible for fostering a learning environment that encourages mutual trust and respect. In doing so, schools develop processes for teaching, learning and assessment and develop an assessment policy (see Section 8.4: Developing a school assessment policy).
Schools:
- develop and regularly review school assessment policies and procedures ensuring alignment with QCAA policies and other relevant guidelines about the responsible use of AI
- ensure that assessment implementation maintains the integrity of assessment at all times and in all cases — including the use of flexible delivery options and AARA in situations affecting individual students, or development of comparable assessment
- consistently apply policies to develop academic integrity and minimise academic misconduct
- develop assessment that expects students to demonstrate knowledge and skills, and enables authentication of their own individual student work
- decide on a style of referencing to be used for student responses and explicitly teach this style of referencing to students
- model academic integrity, e.g. by practising appropriate research, suitable use of AI, referencing, and adherence to copyright laws as a school community
- clearly communicate the school’s expectations for academic integrity and policies for academic misconduct to students and parents/carers
- use QCAA-developed resources, including the academic integrity course, and school-developed programs to help students and teachers understand the importance of academic integrity.
8.1.2 Academic integrity requirement
From 2026, students must complete an academic integrity course as part of the eligibility requirements for the QCE (see Section 2.1.1 Academic integrity requirement). This requirement supports teachers to ensure students are aware of their responsibilities in the assessment process.
Schools are encouraged to support students to meet the academic integrity requirement early in the senior phase of learning.
Learning options to meet the academic integrity requirement for a QCE
A student can meet the academic integrity requirement through completion of one of the following courses of study.
QCAA academic integrity course for senior secondary students (online format)
This course develops knowledge and understanding of:
- what academic integrity is and why it is important
- what academic misconduct is and how to avoid it
- developing effective academic practices, such as
- accurately representing contributions from other sources (including collaboration and content created by AI tools)
- ensuring all work submitted for assessment is original.
Students can access the Academic integrity course for senior secondary students via the Student Portal on the myQCE website. The course takes approximately one hour, and completion is automatically recorded in student learning accounts.
QCAA academic integrity course for senior secondary students (alternative format)
Schools can access an alternative format toolkit to deliver the QCAA academic integrity course to cohorts or individual students who cannot access or use the myQCE Student Portal to complete the online course.
Schools must record completion of the alternative format course in the Student Management app in the QCAA Portal. The record of completion confirms that the principal or their delegate has approved the learning as an appropriate alternative to the QCAA’s online course.
An equivalent academic integrity course
Schools that deliver their own academic integrity course or use a third-party provider must ensure the course covers:
- the nature of academic integrity
- academic misconduct and how to avoid it
- effective academic practices, including
- time management and forward planning
- sourcing appropriate information
- ensuring work is original
- ethical and responsible use of AI tools
- accurately representing contributions or ideas from other sources (including collaboration and content created by AI tools)
- appropriate referencing
- drafting and editing skills.
Schools must record completion of an equivalent course in the Student Management app in the QCAA Portal. The record of completion confirms that the principal or their delegate has approved the learning as an appropriate alternative to the QCAA’s online course.
For more information about learning options to meet the academic integrity requirement, contact QCEforschools@qcaa.qld.edu.au. For support recording the completion of the alternative format course or an equivalent academic integrity course, contact certification@qcaa.qld.edu.au.
8.1.3 Understanding academic misconduct
Academic misconduct incorporates a broad range of behaviours by which students inappropriately and falsely demonstrate their learning. Schools are responsible for managing school-based processes and consequences through a school-developed assessment policy when there is evidence of academic misconduct in internal assessment (see Section 8.4: Developing a school assessment policy). Schools should use proactive strategies to minimise opportunities for academic misconduct.
The types of misconduct and examples listed in the table below are not exhaustive.
| Type of misconduct | Examples |
|---|---|
| Cheating while under supervised conditions |
A student:
|
| Collusion |
When:
|
| Contract cheating |
A student:
|
| Copying work |
A student:
|
| Disclosing or receiving information about an assessment |
A student or other person:
|
| Fabricating |
A student:
|
| Impersonation | A student:
|
| Misconduct during a supervised assessment | A student distracts and/or disrupts others in an assessment room. |
| Plagiarism or lack of referencing | A student:
|
| Self-plagiarism | A student duplicates work, or part of work, already submitted as a response to an assessment instrument in the same or any other subject. |
| Significant contribution of help | A student or other person arranges for, or allows, a tutor, parent/carer or any person in a supporting role to complete or contribute significantly to the response. |
8.1.4 Promoting academic integrity
Schools and teachers can promote academic integrity by modelling and developing students' understanding and awareness of appropriate academic practice.
Students are able to demonstrate what they know and can do by the due date when they understand:
- forward planning — understanding the components of a task and how long each component might take to complete
- time management — implementing a plan to achieve the assessment outcome, incorporating adjustments to this as needed, and allowing for unexpected events such as issues with technology or changes in personal circumstances
- note-taking and summarising — independently synthesising research or gathering information into a new idea or summary
- referencing — appropriately acknowledging the ideas, work or interpretation of others, including use of AI
- choosing appropriate examples — selecting appropriate quotes or examples to support an argument or communicate meaning
- drafting — engaging in drafting and activities to authenticate a response such as at checkpoints, preparing the final draft for formal feedback by editing and refining the response
- editing — independently refining their own work and using feedback
- checking — self-assessing compliance with academic integrity guidelines before submitting responses.
