TEQSA has both observed and received reports about changes in the behaviour of commercial academic cheating services that target students studying for an Australian higher education award. The reports suggest operators of these services are being more aggressive and direct in their promotional activities and are more frequently targeting users of their service for blackmail or identity theft.

Background

Amendments to the TEQSA Act in September 2020 made it illegal to provide or advertise a commercial academic cheating service in Australia. Since then, TEQSA’s work to block illegal cheating websites and remove social media accounts and posts that advertise these services, have disrupted the business of commercial academic cheating services. These actions, as well as the increasing sophistication and availability of generative artificial intelligence services (such as ChatGPT), may be driving the changes in behaviour.

In particular, TEQSA has observed a substantial reduction in internet traffic to websites offering contract cheating services and an increase in reports of students being approached directly through individual email messages or via class groups set up in messaging apps or on social media platforms.

Research shows contract cheating firms are commonly controlled by criminal syndicates, putting students who use these services at very real risk of blackmail or identity theft.

Blackmail activities can include demands for further payment, class materials or past assessment tasks, contact details of other students, or access to provider systems (such as the Learning Management System or the student’s email account).

Students who share personal information with commercial academic cheating services, such as their name and payment details, are at risk of identity theft. Additionally, students disclosing login details to a provider’s system present a cyber security risk that institutions need to be aware of and mitigate.

Provider actions

TEQSA appreciates that Australian higher education providers have been proactive in addressing risks to academic integrity by engaging in a range of activities to educate students, detect cheating and upskill staff.

Due to the increasingly aggressive marketing and blackmail tactics used by illegal academic cheating services, TEQSA encourages all providers to ensure:

• The risks associated with using academic cheating services are clearly and regularly communicated to students as part of ongoing discussions about academic integrity.
• Students are aware of how to access genuine study support, report an approach from a contract cheating service or get assistance if, for example, they are experiencing blackmail.
• Students and staff are made aware of the potential for class groups on messaging and social media platforms to be infiltrated by contract cheating services.
• Students and staff are regularly reminded of their obligation to not disclose university system passwords to anyone, and that genuine, ethical businesses will not request this information.
• IT systems are monitored for suspicious activity, and spam filters and other tools are updated to quarantine emails to students that advertise illegal cheating services.
• Consideration is given to reissuing the login credentials for students that have had a finding of contract cheating upheld.
• All staff with responsibilities for assessment, investigation or decision making regarding alleged academic misconduct or the design or administration of student misconduct policies receive training in contract cheating detection and deterrence. TEQSA’s self-directed online course, Masterclass: contract cheating detection and deterrence is available to all academic and professional staff of Australian higher education providers.
• Posters, business cards and other material posted or left on campus promoting commercial academic cheating services are promptly removed.
• Any information or evidence relating to a commercial academic cheating service targeting your institution, or being used by students at your institution, is shared with TEQSA. You can lodge a report via our website.

Additional resources

Please bookmark TEQSA's Protecting academic integrity page for a full and up-to-date listing of academic integrity materials for providers.

• TEQSA Masterclass: contract cheating detection and deterrence
• Understanding academic integrity (resources for students, including in languages other than English)
• Academic integrity toolkit
• Good Practice Note: Addressing contract cheating to safeguard academic integrity
• Guidance note: Academic and research integrity
• Academic integrity in the creative arts
• Substantiating contract cheating for symbol-dense, logical responses
• Predatory publishing: A to Z elements (PDF, 132 KB)
• Higher education good practice hub

Information about Australia’s anti-commercial academic cheating laws

• Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Amendment (Prohibiting Academic Cheating Services) Bill 2019
• Fact sheet about the Prohibiting Commercial Academic Cheating Services Bill (2019) (PDF, 65 KB)
• Blocked commercial academic cheating websites
• Report a suspected commercial academic cheating service

August 2024

TEQSA reminds all registered higher education providers and their governing bodies of the obligations they have under the Higher Education Standards Framework (Threshold Standards) 2021 to assure student and staff wellbeing and safety, freedom of speech and academic freedom. The ongoing conflict in the Middle East is impacting many Australians, including students and staff within higher education institutions, and protest activities have escalated on some university campuses. It is important that all providers are prepared so they can manage and respond to these activities, and other student protests related to any cause or purpose, in ways that ensure they are meeting the Threshold Standards.

Key points

When responding to student protest activity, providers will consider the following parts of the Threshold Standards:

• Standard 2.3 encompasses organisational responsibilities for safeguarding and supporting the wellbeing and safety of students and staff.
• Standard 6.1.4 applies to the governing body taking steps to maintain an institutional environment where the wellbeing of students and staff is fostered, and freedom and speech and academic freedom are upheld and protected.

Providers

To manage and respond to the risks associated with student protest activity related to any cause or purpose, and to ensure providers continue meeting the Threshold Standards, TEQSA expects that providers will take the following measures:

Institutional policies and processes

In keeping with the requirements of the Threshold Standards, providers should clearly communicate institutional policies and procedures on topics such as academic support, freedom of speech and academic freedom, student and staff conduct, and misconduct. These policies and procedures should be up-to-date and applied consistently and fairly.

Information about student conduct policies, expectations and how to access support will be shared through communications to students and other communication channels. Policies and processes will be reviewed regularly to ensure their effectiveness, and any identified gaps in policies and procedures or legal frameworks will be addressed promptly.

Academic support and adjustment

Providers will give additional focus to identifying and supporting at-risk students. Currently, this includes those whose wellbeing has been significantly affected by the conflict in the Middle East or associated protest activity. Measures will include ensuring processes for academic adjustment are fit for the current circumstances and embedded with trauma-informed principles, and putting in place other academic supports to ensure students can continue their studies.

Ensuring a safe campus, including teaching and learning spaces

Providers will ensure materials that breach Australian law or conflict with institutional policies, including hate speech and symbols, are promptly removed from institutional property, including removal from both physical property and digital platforms.

Students and staff who have concerns for their safety and security on campus should be supported. Information on how to access the available supports should be shared routinely, and the effectiveness of supports regularly reviewed. The governing body of the provider will have appropriate oversight of concerns regarding student and staff safety.

Providers should have effective critical incident management structures and institutional security arrangements. This includes relationships with outside agencies, such as police, and proactive approaches to ensure any risks to student and staff safety are identified, shared and acted upon. As appropriate to the circumstances, efforts should be made to engage with student groups on campus to ensure any protest activities are respectful and in keeping with providers’ policies.

Particular attention will be paid to ensuring teaching and learning spaces are safe for all. While it has been a longstanding custom in some universities for students to announce details of protests at the start of classes, this has been problematic given the charged and often personalised nature of events related to the Middle East. Recent feedback to TEQSA indicates that people entering classrooms to voice positions on protests and on the conflict are engaging in behaviour that is disruptive and intimidating to many. Policies related to freedom and speech and academic freedom should be carefully considered in light of these concerns. Educating students about expectations for acceptable engagement and expression of views, as well as training and support for staff to respond to disruptions to learning environments both on-campus and online, will be important measures.

Ensuring complaint and support mechanisms are accessible

Providers will have a continued focus on ensuring students and staff are aware of complaint and support processes. TEQSA has received feedback that some students do not feel safe making specific complaints. Providers should ensure their complaint processes are trauma-informed and continue to highlight the ways staff and students can make complaints and access support. Measures for maintaining confidentiality during complaints processes should be considered.

Taking appropriate action in response to inappropriate conduct

Providers are expected to apply their institutional policies to students and staff whose conduct may be in breach of those policies – this includes behaviour as part of organised protest activity and language or conduct in learning settings that goes beyond what is acceptable in academic discussion. Providers will ensure institutional policies and procedures are fairly and consistently applied and any cases where action is taken are transparently reported in line with organisational policy.

Providers may take appropriate action to respond to people from outside the provider’s community, whose actions pose a risk to a provider’s property, digital environments, learning and teaching spaces or the safety and wellbeing of students or staff. TEQSA is aware that there can be complexity in legal provisions for dealing with occupation of an institution’s grounds and disbanding protests, and these can vary between providers. Providers should give ongoing consideration to managing building access, the use of student and staff ID cards, and making use of appropriate legal avenues to remove people that are not part of the provider’s community who are engaging in behaviour that poses a risk to the safety and wellbeing of students and staff.

Upholding freedom of speech and academic freedom

Providers will evaluate the effectiveness and operation of their policies relating to freedom of speech and academic freedom and make any required adjustments. Protest activity in the first half of 2024 presented a major test of changes to provider freedom of speech and academic freedom policies following the development of the French Model code in 2019.

Additionally, providers will actively consider how they work to assure their governing bodies that students and staff understand the content of the relevant policies and how they intersect with the law in relation to anti-discrimination and hate speech that may be applicable on-campus and online.

Good practice

TEQSA aims to develop a range of good practice resources and guidance to support providers in managing the ongoing risks associated with student protest activity and assure the wellbeing and safety of students and staff, as well as freedom of speech and academic freedom. Resources will be published on our website as they are developed.

TEQSA recognises that this is an evolving issue for higher education, and will continue to monitor and update our advice. As part of this work, we welcome feedback, including examples of good practice within the sector. You can provide feedback to us at: policyandresearch@teqsa.gov.au.

11 August 2023

TEQSA reminds higher education providers of the importance of robust processes and mechanisms for identifying, analysing, and responding to risks regarding the recruitment, admission, and support of overseas students.

Background

Recently, TEQSA has observed significant risks in the recruitment of overseas students which we are currently investigating. This has highlighted the importance of providers having robust recruitment and admissions processes that are supported by effective oversight and self-assurance measures.

When recruiting overseas students, under the National Code of Practice for Providers of Education and Training to Overseas Students 2018 (National Code) and the Higher Education Standards Framework (Threshold Standards) 2021 (HES Framework), registered providers have obligations. These obligations are outlined in the table below.

TEQSA has observed an increase in potential indicators of risk with respect to these obligations.

These include:

• high numbers of overseas students, after arriving onshore, transferring to other higher education providers or Registered Training Organisations (RTO), which may indicate students are being recruited:
  • without being provided sufficient information about their chosen provider, course, or life and study in Australia
  • without appropriate qualifications or academic preparedness for their course of study
  • who are not bona-fide or will not comply with the terms of their visa.
• an increase in non-commencements, incompletion rates, and visas not being granted
• reports of unethical behaviour by some education agents in recruiting overseas students, both onshore and offshore
• inadequacies in policies and processes for identifying, notifying, and assisting overseas students at risk of not meeting course progress requirements
• improper management of enrolment data, including inaccurate or delayed reporting
• substantial and/or rapid growth, including recruitment in new markets.

Each of these suggest that overseas student recruitment and admission practices across the sector are not adequately robust, and risks are not being effectively monitored and managed.

Identifying, analysing, and responding to risks

Providers need to be able to demonstrate, through robust governance oversight. that risks related to recruitment, admission and support of overseas students are identified, analysed, and mitigated effectively.

To effectively identify these risks, TEQSA expects providers to monitor and measure the performance of overseas student cohorts. This should consider the risk profile associated with each education agent, and the performance of overseas student cohorts. This may include their country of origin, their chosen course, and the qualifications accepted for entry into that course (including English language testing and credit for prior learning).

The monitoring and management of recruitment risks should complement and draw from existing processes for interim monitoring, comprehensive reviews, external referencing, and student feedback.

Measures of performance should consider student outcomes in the first six (6) months and thereafter. TEQSA expects providers to identify students that may not have been appropriately prepared for the course, considering rates of non-commencements, incompletion, unsatisfactory course progress, and issues with English language proficiency after commencing study.

Where the provider identifies potential indicators of risk, it should seek to understand their causes. TEQSA expects providers to assess whether, and ensure overseas students are:

• sufficiently informed about their chosen provider, course of study, life, and cost of living in Australia.
• appropriately qualified for the course of study they are enrolled in, including English Language proficiency, prior learning, and work experience
• provided with the support needed to help them transition to living and studying in Australia
• are bona-fide students with a genuine intent to study in Australia and comply with all visa requirements
• recruited ethically, responsibly, and in the best interests of the student, whether recruited directly or by an education agent.

Effective management of these risks may include, but is not limited to, a provider:

• undertaking pro-active identification of concerning behaviour by education agents followed by prompt corrective action
• consistently improving or enhancing the quality and accessibility of information provided to overseas students, both through education agents and directly by the provider
• informed by active monitoring and student feedback, improving and better tailoring onshore support for overseas students to meet their needs
• informed by academic monitoring, making amendments to course entry requirements to ensure recruited students are adequately prepared for their course of study.

Related resources

• Guidance note: Corporate governance
• Guidance note: Monitoring and analysis of student performance
• Guidance note: Admissions (coursework)
• Guidance note: Credit and recognition of prior learning
• Guidance note: Staffing, learning resources and educational support
• Guidance note: Academic integrity
• TEQSA sector alert (November 2022): Provider responsibilities when using education agents
• National Code of Practice for Providers of Education and Training to Overseas Students 2018 Standards 2, 4, 6-8, 11.
   

TEQSA is concerned that illegal academic cheating services are posing a cyber security risk to higher education providers, through systematic targeting of learning management systems (LMS), and resulting in threats to students, academic and professional staff, research and information security.

Background

TEQSA continues to have concerns that illegal academic cheating services are gaining access to LMS and other provider IT systems. Commonly, the cheating services are persuading students to share personal login information as part of their contract cheating provisions and this information is then used to gain access to other provider IT systems.

By gaining access to a provider’s LMS and other systems, cheating services are accessing sensitive information including, but not limited to:

• contact information for other students enrolled in a course of study
• details on course structures, assessment tasks and detection processes
• information about staff
• sensitive research activities or other commercial-in-confidence activities.

Such activities present a risk to students, academic and professional staff and institutions.

Figure 1: Cyber security and wellbeing risks created by academic cheating

Identifying, analysing, and responding to this risk

Effective management of these risks may include, but is not limited to, a provider:

• ensuring students and staff (including sessional staff) are aware of their obligations to secure their login details and other sensitive data, know how to safeguard their information, and are aware of the risks involved in cyber security breaches
• having appropriate policies to identify and address cyber security incidents, and ensure these are embedded in operations
• being mindful of the broader risks posed by illegal academic cheating services, including cyber security risks and risks to student wellbeing and safety
• proactively mitigating cyber security risks, when students are suspected of using illegal academic cheating services, for example, by issuing new passwords and scanning student accounts for suspicious activities
• reviewing existing protocols and procedures and, where needed, updating these to incorporate measures to reduce the risk of cyber security incidents, such as regular password changes for students
• responding promptly to cyber security incidents when they do occur, in accordance with their security and incident response plans, keeping the wellbeing and safety of those impacted in mind.

Where a student is suspected or found to have used an academic cheating service, providers should consider assigning new login credentials as a precautionary step.

Risks to compliance

Failure to take appropriate action to address these risks puts providers at risk of non-compliance with their obligations under the Higher Education Standards Framework (Threshold Standards) 2021.

Relevant standards include:

Standard 2.3.4

A safe environment is promoted and fostered, including by advising students and staff on actions they can take to enhance safety and security on campus and online.

Standard 5.2.2

Preventative action is taken to mitigate foreseeable risks to academic and research integrity including misrepresentation, fabrication, cheating, plagiarism and misuse of intellectual property, and to prevent recurrences of breaches.

Standard 5.2.3

Students are provided with guidance on what constitutes academic or research misconduct and the development of good practices in maintaining academic and research integrity.

Standard 6.2.1 (j)

The provider is able to demonstrate, and the corporate governing body assures itself, that the provider is operating effectively and sustainably, including the occurrence and nature of formal complaints, allegations of misconduct, breaches of academic or research integrity and critical incidents are monitored and action is taken to address underlying causes.

Standard 6.3.2(d)

Academic oversight assures the quality of teaching, learning, research and research training effectively, including by maintaining oversight of academic and research integrity, including monitoring of potential risks.

Standard 7.3.3(b)

Information systems and records are maintained, securely and confidentially as necessary to prevent unauthorised or fraudulent access to private or sensitive information, including information where unauthorised access may compromise academic or research integrity.

Standard 7.3.3(c)

Information systems and records are maintained, securely and confidentially as necessary to document and record responses to formal complaints, allegations of misconduct, breaches of academic or research integrity and critical incidents.

Related TEQSA resources

• TEQSA Masterclass: contract cheating detection and deterrence
• Academic integrity toolkit
• Good Practice Note: Addressing contract cheating to safeguard academic integrity
• Guidance note: Academic and research integrity
• Understanding academic integrity
• Cyber security e-learning modules for non-university providers
• Guidance note: Facilities and infrastructure

21 November 2024

The Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) has cancelled the qualifications and/or statements of attainment of more than 6,400 past students of former Registered Training Organisation (RTO) Luvium Pty Ltd as part of its ongoing work to ensure the integrity of qualifications gained through Australia’s VET sector.

Background

Luvium Pty Ltd (trading as Australia Education & Career College 52865) was registered to deliver training and assessment to domestic students but an ASQA compliance investigation found it had issued qualifications without appropriate training or competency-based assessment by qualified assessors between 1 January 2023 and 19 October 2024.

ASQA sent notices of intent to cancel the qualifications and/or statements of attainment to 7,360 former students on 6 November 2024 after cancelling the registration of Luvium effective 19 October 2024 following an extensive compliance investigation.

Of the 7,360 former students who were sent notices, more than 6,400 provided no response and ASQA therefore cancelled their qualifications and/or statements of attainment on 15 November. ASQA received responses from more than 780 former students and is considering their responses and will advise them of an outcome as soon as possible.

All cancelled qualifications and statements of attainment were issued between 1 January 2023 and 19 October 2024. Information about impacted qualifications and statements of attainment is available from the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations.

Further information, including fact sheets, about this regulatory action is available on the ASQA website.

TEQSA's role

TEQSA is concerned that former Luvium students enrolled in a higher education program may have used a cancelled qualification as part of their admissions process or have been awarded recognition of prior learning (RPL) for these now cancelled qualifications.

TEQSA notes:

• Luvium Pty Ltd (trading as Australia Education & Career College 52865) is not registered with TEQSA to award higher education programs.
• None of the issues ASQA has taken action on relate to delivery by any higher education provider.

Provider actions

TEQSA expects all higher education providers will review their records to identify where students may have used a cancelled qualification for the purpose of admission or RPL to a higher education course of study.

Where a provider identifies a student may have used a cancelled qualification, in accordance with the provider’s institutional policies and procedures it should address any issues arising from the cancellation of the qualification. For example, any credit a provider offered to the student that relied upon that student having undertaken a legitimate qualification with Luvium Pty Ltd should be reconsidered.

TEQSA also expects providers to implement appropriate safeguards to assure themselves that their institution will not be adversely impacted in the future.

Relevant standards

Higher Education Standards Framework (Threshold Standards) 2021

• Standard 1.1 Admission
• Standard 1.2 Credit and recognition of prior learning
• Standard 2.3 Wellbeing and safety

National Code of Practice for Providers of Education and Training to Overseas Students 2018

• Standard 2 - Recruitment of an overseas student
• Standard 9 - Deferring, suspending or cancelling the overseas student's enrolment

TEQSA wishes to remind providers of the importance of maintaining clear and contemporary academic integrity policies and procedures. Academic integrity is fundamental to the reputation and credibility of Australia’s higher education sector. Providers’ policy frameworks should highlight their commitment to academic integrity and their expectation that all staff and students uphold, and act with, academic integrity.

Key points

Academic misconduct generally refers to a breach of academic integrity through acts such as cheating, plagiarism, and fabrication or falsification of data. The Higher Education Standards Framework (Threshold Standards) 2021 Part A, Section 5.2 sets out four broad requirements regarding academic and research integrity, which state that a provider must:

• have policies that promote and uphold academic and research integrity and policies and procedures that address allegations of misconduct
• take action to mitigate foreseeable risks to academic and research integrity
• provide students and staff with guidance and training on what constitutes academic or research misconduct and the development of good practices in maintaining academic and research integrity
• ensure that academic and research integrity are maintained in arrangements with any other party involved in the provision of higher education.

To ensure appropriate action can be taken where breaches of academic integrity are identified, institutional policies and procedures need to reflect the evolving risks to academic integrity. Consideration of emerging forms of academic misconduct, such as file sharing and the use of artificial intelligence writing tools, will support institutions and staff to uphold the integrity of their awards.

Providers

Providers should regularly review and update their academic integrity policies and procedures to ensure they address new and emerging forms of academic misconduct. In 2022, TEQSA reviewed all providers’ policies and frameworks and identified that:

• Most policies include clear definitions of academic integrity breaches such plagiarism, cheating, falsification of information, collusion, third-party involvement and reusing one’s own work without appropriate acknowledgement
• Many policies made explicit mention of commercial academic or contract cheating (understood as paying a third party to complete an assessment) as a breach of academic integrity
• Only a small number of providers include clear definitions of how use of technology could constitute contemporary forms of cheating such as:
  • file sharing as a form of academic misconduct, where exam questions and assignments are exchanged internally or uploaded or downloaded through a third-party platform
  • artificial intelligence (AI) software or paraphrasing tools as a form of contract cheating, where substantial parts of exam questions and assignments are written by text generating software.

Practical ways institutions can facilitate an ongoing culture of academic integrity within their staff and student communities include:

• providing all students with guidance on what constitutes academic misconduct when they commence their study and ensuring that emerging threats to integrity are clearly explained
• reinforcing messages about upholding academic integrity throughout the student’s study journey
• considering, and clearly articulating, the acceptable and prohibited uses of emerging practices and technologies such as file sharing and AI writing tools
• engaging students in regular and genuine conversations about what it means to act ethically and with integrity
• recognising that staff, like students, come from diverse background and should receive clear information about the institution’s policies, procedures and reporting obligations.  

Good practice

A strong policy and procedure framework and ongoing commitment to a culture of academic integrity is the basis for consistent decision making. TEQSA has developed a variety of good practice resources to support institutions to uphold academic integrity:

• Good practice note: Addressing contract cheating to safeguard academic integrity
• Guidance note: Academic and research integrity
• Academic integrity experts advice hub
• Academic integrity toolkit
• Academic integrity in the creative arts
• Substantiating contract cheating for symbol-dense, logical responses in any discipline, particularly mathematics: a guide for investigators

This sector update provides information and resources for higher education providers in implementing recommendations from the Respect @ Work report.

The Respect @ Work report provides recommendations about the prevention and response to sexual assault and sexual harassment in the workplace.

For further information from TEQSA about prevention or response to sexual assault or harassment in higher education, you may contact studentwellbeing@teqsa.gov.au.

Respect @ Work report

In January 2020, the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) released its Respect @ Work: National inquiry into sexual harassment in Australian workplaces report. This report included 55 recommendations, 2 specifically referencing the Australian higher education sector (the sector).

Sexual harassment prevention by universities and other tertiary education institutions
 

Recommendation 11  

Building on work already underway in response to the recommendations in Change the Course, all tertiary and higher education providers deliver evidence-based information and training on sexual harassment for staff and students that addresses the drivers of gender-based violence and includes content on workplace rights.
 

Recommendation 12

Recognising that some smaller tertiary and higher education providers lack the necessary resources and expertise to deliver the information and training identified in Recommendation 11, the Australian Government should support those providers to do so, for example through the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency and the Australian Skills Quality Authority.

These recommendations seek to make Australian higher education a safe place to study and work. In support of that goal, TEQSA has recommitted to supporting the sector in delivering these recommendations.

TEQSA’s support of the sector

Since August 2017, TEQSA has worked alongside the sector to improve and assure providers’ capacity to prevent and respond to sexual assault and sexual harassment. TEQSA’s focus has been on students’ safety and wellbeing.

The Respect @ Work Inquiry and its resulting recommendations focus on sexual harassment in the workplace, which includes staff in higher education work settings. Consequently, TEQSA’s focus in this area has broadened to include sexual harassment of staff.  

Drivers and remedies are similar for the sexual assault and sexual harassment and the Respect @ Work issues and TEQSA will continue to support the sector to combat both.

TEQSA resources

• Information sheet on Respect @ Work
• PowerPoint: Respect @ Work explained
• Student wellbeing page

External resources

• Respect @ Work report
• AHRC and Respect@Work Council's Respect@Work website
• AHRC webinar: Respect@Work for academics
• AHRC: The Positive Duty under the Sex Discrimination Act
• Fair Work Commission: Information about sexual harassment and orders to stop it
• Fair Work Ombudsman: Information about sexual harassment, support services and dismissal for serious misconduct

Academic integrity forms the foundation of your educational journey. It's about being honest, trustworthy and responsible in your studies. If you receive an allegation of academic misconduct, it might feel overwhelming at first.

Don’t worry, you’re not alone, and there’s a process in place to ensure everything is handled fairly and transparently.

Investigations into academic misconduct aim to get to the bottom of what happened while protecting the integrity of the institution and its qualifications. This matters because it ensures that your efforts and achievements are recognised fairly, and the value of your degree remains strong throughout your career, whether you stay in Australia or venture out into the world.

Academic integrity is about creating a level playing field for all students. It’s designed to reward effort and ensure everyone follows the same standards. Mistakes happen, and investigations help identify what went wrong and provide support so you can move forward in your studies with confidence. Investigations also help to detect and sanction intentional and serious academic misconduct, which strengthens the value of your degree.

This resource is here to guide you through the academic misconduct process step-by-step. You’ll find:

• easy-to-understand infographics
• real-life examples
• clear explanations of your rights and responsibilities
• information on what is involved when you are the subject of an academic misconduct allegation.

The included resources have been provided to help support your well-being. Whether you’re feeling stressed, embarrassed, or anxious, there are tools and tips to help you navigate the process. Your institution is there to support you, so remember to check out the well-being supports they have on offer to help students.

Remember If you find yourself being threatened or blackmailed by a cheating service provider consult an academic advisor or student support as soon as possible. They are there to help and make sure you stay safe.

Explore the site

Explore the links below to get the guidance you need, and don’t forget to check your institution’s policies and procedures for more specific information.

1. Student responsibilities	2. Understanding academic misconduct allegations	3. The investigation process	4. Responding to an allegation
5. Outcomes and penalties	6. Appeals	7. Support	8. Impact on international students
9. Contract cheating, large-scale cases and artificial intelligence	10. Learning from an allegation of academic misconduct	11. FAQs on the academic misconduct process	12. Glossary

Video: Navigating academic misconduct allegations

20 November 2025

TEQSA has both observed and received reports about challenges that registered higher education providers (providers) have faced regarding external actors coming on to campuses, where their actions disrupt or pose risks to staff and student safety or wellbeing. To support providers in managing risks presented by external actors, TEQSA has documented the challenges that some providers encountered and compiled a range of strategies that providers adopted in response.

Providers should consider their individual circumstances, such as size and location, student population and legislative obligations when considering the suitability and applicability of the strategies compiled below. For example, the applicability of suggestions related to campus management will differ for providers depending on whether they are operating on public or private land; some strategies are general in nature, while others may be more suited to specific incident risk profiles.

This emerging practice is informed by relevant submissions to recent parliamentary inquiries¹ and learnings from a series of social cohesion roundtables TEQSA organised and hosted in late 2024. At these roundtables, university representatives and other stakeholders shared their experiences of protests and encampments on campuses in Australia and the challenges associated with these events, including identifying and managing risks posed by external actors on campus.

TEQSA encourages providers to consider other relevant recommendations from forthcoming reviews, including internal reviews by individual institutions, the Australian Human Rights Commission’s study into the prevalence and impact of racism in Australian universities and work by the Special Envoys to combat antisemitism and Islamophobia.

Background

In 2024, multiple Australian universities experienced protests and encampments on campus related to conflict in the Middle East. External actors or ‘outside agitators’ have been identified as a challenge for providers to manage. ‘External actors’, in this context, refers to persons who are not students or staff, or members of a provider’s community² who enter a provider’s campus.

In the Australian context, it has been widely acknowledged that external actors have participated in protests and encampments on university campuses. Many of the more serious incidents that occurred during the protests and encampments that presented risks to the wellbeing and safety of the provider’s community involved external actors. Some of these challenges have been publicly documented, for example by the University of Sydney and the University of Melbourne.³

TEQSA’s intent is to draw attention to issues that may warrant consideration from providers and share emerging practice across the sector to support providers to assure themselves that they meet their obligations under the Higher Education Standards Framework (Threshold Standards) 2021 (Threshold Standards).

The Threshold Standards set clear expectations for providers to identify and manage risks to student and staff wellbeing and safety, including those associated with external actors on campus.

TEQSA draws attention to the following parts of the Threshold Standards relevant to managing external actors:

• Section 2.3 encompasses organisational responsibilities for safeguarding and supporting the wellbeing and safety of students and staff.
• Standard 6.1.3b sets expectations for having clearly defined roles and delegated authority for effective governance and policy development and review, including relevant codes, by-laws, statutes and rules.
• Standard 6.1.4 requires the governing body to maintain an institutional environment where the wellbeing of students and staff is fostered, and freedom of speech and academic freedom are upheld and protected.
• Section 6.2 requires that providers be able to demonstrate, and their corporate governing body assure itself, that the provider is operating effectively and sustainably. This includes:
  • complying with all relevant legislative requirements
  • identifying, managing and mitigating material risks to the provider’s operations
  • monitoring and responding to formal complaints, allegations of misconduct and critical incidents.

Sector challenges

Providers identified several challenges in relation to managing external actors on campus, including:

• Balancing their obligation to uphold freedom of speech and academic freedom with their obligation to protect the health and safety of students and staff, including minimising risks of psychosocial or physical harm that may come from external actors.⁴
• Understanding and navigating legal issues in responding to external actors occupation of, and encampments on, an institution’s grounds and in disbanding protests that escalate and become unsafe.
• Understanding the role, function and jurisdiction of police relative to the provider and fostering productive relationships with police.
• Responding to external actors, who are not bound by student or staff codes of conduct, who may provoke breaches of student or staff codes of conduct on campus.
  • In such cases, external actors may film students and staff in breach of their codes of conduct and then report the breach to the provider and the media, manipulating the situation and its presentation to promote an ideological agenda.
• Understanding and addressing the need for provider-specific risk mitigation strategies that reflect the diversity of the higher education sector.
• Diversity of providers that necessitate different policies and procedures or by-laws to manage external actors include considerations such as:
  • the number of campuses a provider has (single or multiple)
  • the location of campuses: major metropolitan hubs that are easily accessible by public transport require different approaches than those that are more isolated
  • campuses with a significant amount of open space face different issues regarding access than campuses characterised by primarily enclosed buildings
  • self-contained campuses with external barriers require different approaches to those that are porous to local foot traffic in busy areas.

Emerging practice to manage external actors on campus

Australian universities that experienced protests and encampments on campus in 2024 demonstrated different ways of responding to external actors. Key learnings from the sector include:

• Options for managing external actors may be influenced by institutional instruments such as university Acts, by-laws, statutes, rules, enterprise bargaining agreements, and codes of conduct for staff and students. It is important that these instruments be properly understood.
• Providers are expected to balance student and staff freedoms to express ideas and political views without fear of reprisal against genuine concerns about safety and harm. Any restrictions providers place on student and staff freedoms should be reasonable, proportionate and necessary to allow them to meet their legal obligations.

To the extent that legal obligations and institutional instruments permit, the following strategies identified from emerging practice within the sector may warrant consideration from providers. In some cases, universities may need to seek amendments to statutes or by-laws to ensure appropriate responses can be implemented to manage external actors on campus. As these strategies are broad in scope, it is important for providers to recognise that not all will be relevant to their individual contexts.

Institutional policies, by-laws and complaint/misconduct procedures

• Regularly review and update relevant policies and procedures to ensure their ongoing effectiveness. Address any identified gaps in existing policies and procedures promptly:
  • review the process for updating policies to ensure that, when necessary, policies can be updated quickly and efficiently.⁵
• Establish clear reporting procedures for incidents or the presence of external actors on campus:
  • ensure that reporting processes are user-friendly, easy to access, include provision for confidentiality or anonymity and are clearly communicated to staff and students
  • ensure there is clarity about how the provider will respond to reports, and within what timeframe.⁶
• Develop a risk assessment framework for external actors:
  • clarify how relevant legal and policy frameworks affect the capacity for external actors to plan and/or participate in protests or encampments on campus, and any terms under which they may do so.⁷
• Establish and clearly communicate policies or by-laws that articulate campus access for external actors and procedures for responding to situations where external actors breach these policies:
  • set out what actions will be taken (such as when police will be contacted) and consequences that apply to external actors who engage in behaviour that is disruptive, damaging, a threat to the safety or wellbeing of others, or otherwise breaches a provider’s policies
    • regularly review whether these procedures are being upheld and if misconduct processes are implemented in a timely manner.⁸
• Ensure policies and by-laws are well advertised and easy to access and understand, including for people outside the provider’s community.⁹
• Complaints from or involving external actors are reviewed holistically on a case-by-case basis, with consideration of all available information to ensure fairness and accuracy.  

Critical incident management

• Review and, where necessary, update critical incident management structures and institutional security arrangements:
  • ensure clarity exists around which situations warrant calling the critical incident management team and/or police, and who is responsible for making that decision.¹⁰
• Develop and foster productive relationships with outside agencies, such as police:
  • understand the obligations and expectations police have regarding when they should be called and what forms of assistance they can provide.¹¹
• Establish a standardised process and communication strategy for use by campus security regarding external actors coming on to campus.¹²
• Establish clear organisational responsibility for developing, implementing and monitoring safety plans for staff or student cohorts who may be targeted by outside actors.¹³

Education and training for staff and students

• Provide clear and practical education and training on relevant institutional policies and misconduct procedures for students, staff and relevant contractors:
  • ensure training includes processes for how to report incidents or the presence of external actors on campus.¹⁴
• Train staff (particularly staff who regularly interact with the campus community) in critical management procedures so they can confidently follow appropriate processes when responding to incidents involving external actors on campus.¹⁵
• Establish protocols for supporting staff to deal with external actors who may enter learning and teaching spaces or offices.¹⁶

Legal obligations

• Confirm the governing body has a documented and clear understanding of the legal status of the institution regarding the classification of land/property in relation to protests, encampments and external actors:
  • this includes obligations under relevant state or territory legislation, any applicable local by-laws, and legislation under which the institution is established.¹⁷  
• Ensure relevant staff understand what powers the provider has and the legal avenues available for managing external actors on campus:
  • this includes when to contact law enforcement, or how and if the provider can take action to remove people that are not part of the provider’s community who are engaging in behaviour that poses a risk to student and staff wellbeing and safety.¹⁸

Campus management

• Statements displayed at entrances to campus, or in large public areas, outline expected behaviour and conditions associated with access to campus.¹⁹
• Manage building access through access cards, help desks or other mechanisms where appropriate.²⁰
• Examine how student and staff identification cards could assist providers in identifying external actors or preventing external actors from accessing parts of a campus that should only be accessible staff and students. This may include:
  • encouraging staff and students to carry their identification with them, particularly during periods of uncommon or unexpected tension or activity, while they are on campus or accessing secured facilities, such as private offices or research laboratories
  • using electronic staff and student identification cards to help manage access to certain areas of campus.²¹
• Consider the deployment and effective utilisation of CCTV
  • use of CCTV should be underpinned by a reasonable purpose and align with the provider’s risk management strategy
  • providers should review their legal obligations under relevant Commonwealth, state and territory privacy laws associated with the collection and storage of surveillance footage.²²
• Consider the necessity and effectiveness of security personnel wearing body worn cameras as part of the provider’s risk management strategy
  • there is evidence from some providers that body worn cameras may reassure the provider’s community, modify behaviour and deter antisocial behaviour when used appropriately
  • providers should review their legal obligations regarding the use of body worn cameras, and the collection and storage of surveillance footage, as noted above.²³  

TEQSA encourages all higher education providers to consider this emerging practice, giving consideration to all risks relevant to the institution’s particular circumstances and ensuring steps are taken to protect student and staff wellbeing and safety, while upholding the rights to freedom of speech and academic freedom.

Notes

1. See Commission of Inquiry into Antisemitism at Australian Universities Bill 2024 (No. 2) – Parliament of Australia; Antisemitism at Australian universities – Parliament of Australia.
2. A provider’s community is understood to widely include alumni, prospective students, invited guests and visiting scholars and researchers.
3. See Hodgkinson, B (2024) University of Sydney External Review Report, University of Sydney, accessed 15 January 2025; Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights (2024) ‘Proof Committee Hansard - Antisemitism at Australian universities’, December 12 2024, 4-14.
4. Providers can consult, for example, points 6 and 7 of A Model Code for the Protection of Freedom of Speech and Academic Freedom in Australian Higher Education Providers (p.235-236) that suggest principles for policies and procedures that can inform an organisation’s approach to managing external visitors and invited guests.
5. Higher Education Standards Framework (Threshold Standards) 2021, Standard 6.1.3b.
6. Threshold Standards, Standard 6.1.3b.
7. Threshold Standards, Section 6.2.
8. Threshold Standards, Section 2.3, Standard 6.1.4).
9. Threshold Standards, Standard 6.1.4.
10. Threshold Standards, Standard 6.1.3b.
11. Threshold Standards, Section 6.2.
12. Threshold Standards, Section 6.2.
13. Threshold Standards, Section 6.2.
14. Threshold Standards, Section 6.2.
15. Threshold Standards, Section 6.2.
16. Threshold Standards, Section 2.3.
17. Threshold Standards, Section 6.2.
18. Threshold Standards, Section 2.3, Standard 6.1.3b, Standard 6.1.4.
19. Threshold Standards, Section 6.2.
20. Threshold Standards, Section 2.3, Section 6.2.
21. Threshold Standards, Section 2.3, Section 6.2.
22. Threshold Standards, Section 2.3, Section 6.2.
23. Threshold Standards, Section 2.3, Standard 6.1.4, Section 6.2.