Academic Integrity

During 2017, our College community is focusing on three core values – community, service and integrity. During Term 1, the Executive Team at the College investigated how we can become stronger as a College community in the area of academic integrity. At the conclusion of Term 1, Northside Christian College approved a new Academic Integrity and Plagiarism Policy for our College community.

As a Christian school, we aim to teach and encourage our students to act with integrity, to be an honest person, one who knows right from wrong and who has the inner strength to stand for that which is right, good or just. This applies to many aspects of their lives, including their academic work.

The purpose of this policy document is to set out the College’s commitment to Academic Integrity, with particular reference to the importance of acknowledgement practice and responding to plagiarism and other forms of academic misconduct in a consistent and equitable manner.

In all assessed work, students should take care to ensure that the work presented is their own and fully acknowledges the work and opinions of others. It is also the responsibility of students to ensure that they do not undertake any form of cheating or other form of unfair advantage.

This policy document outlines a wide range of procedures and protocols at the College, including responding to plagiarism, non-submission of work, late submission of work, unsatisfactory student results and scaling of results.

A key aspect of this policy document is on educating our students about academic integrity. Our teaching staff have a responsibility to educate students on cheating and plagiarism. This includes defining what cheating and plagiarism are and informing students of the potential consequences when cheating and plagiarism occur. Our Secondary School students will continue to learn more about citing sources of information and appropriately referencing sources.

This policy and procedure applies to all internal assessments, including internal examinations. Where awarding bodies such as the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) have their own published procedures these will take precedent over the College’s policy.

A copy of this policy document will be published on the College’s website.

We look forward to becoming stronger in the area of academic integrity at Northside Christian College.

Michael Bond
Deputy Principal / Head of Secondary School