Code of Practice for Academic Honesty and Integrity - Quick Process Guide For Students

What is Academic Integrity?

Academic integrity refers to being honest and responsible in your academic work. Students are expected to submit work that is their own and give proper credit when using ideas, information, or words from other sources.

Maintaining academic integrity ensures that grades fairly reflect a student’s knowledge, effort and engagement with the programme materials.

What is Academic Misconduct?

Academic misconduct is any behaviour that breaks the rules of academic honesty. It includes actions that give a student an unfair academic advantage or misrepresent someone else’s work as their own.
There are different types of Academic Misconduct, including but not limited to:

What Happens If Misconduct Is Suspected?

The process usually follows these steps:

The student can either:

• Accept the sanction, or
• Reject it and request a hearing with the Academic Integrity Panel.

Students may be required to attend a meeting with the Academic Integrity Panel outside of these circumstances; this will be communicated to the student via email from the Registrar’s Office.

At the Academic Integrity Panel Meeting

Students have the opportunity to:

• Explain their circumstances to the Committee

Appeal the Committee’s decisions within 10 working days of the meeting, as long as there are valid grounds for the appeal – further detail on the Appeals Process is available here.

Committee Structure

A new Academic Integrity Committee is assembled for each hearing, composed of The Director of Student Registry Services along with a representative from each of the following groups:

• The School of Business and Social Sciences
• The School of Computing
• The Academic Council
• The NCI Student’s Union

*Note: Four members of the Appeals Committee shall constitute a quorum.

Levels of Penalties

NCI classifies misconduct into four levels, depending on severity.

In summary

To avoid academic misconduct:

• Always submit your own work.
• Reference sources properly.
• Do not copy or share assignments.
• Follow exam rules.
• Declare any AI assistance if required.

Academic integrity protects the fairness and credibility of academic qualifications and ensures students are honest about their work.

Misconduct such as plagiarism, cheating, or contract cheating can lead to penalties ranging from resubmission to formal disciplinary hearings.

NCI’s Library has many helpful resources available to students; please reach out to the Library’s Academic Support Centre for further information and guidance on avoiding academic misconduct.