Academic Integrity and Misconduct Policy

What academic integrity means here

Academic integrity means being honest in your learning and assessment. We expect you to:

• submit work that is your own
• acknowledge other people's words, ideas and work when you use them
• follow the instructions for each assessment
• act ethically and professionally in training sessions and at clinics
• tell us if you see someone cheating

For first aid and CPR, honest assessment is also a legal requirement. Under the Standards for RTOs 2025, the evidence we assess must be your original and genuine work, and we must not issue a Statement of Attainment (the nationally recognised certificate for completing a unit) unless we have assessed you as competent. For our echocardiography courses, your Scope Institute certificate records the training you completed, so it has to reflect your own work.

What counts as misconduct

Academic misconduct is any action, or attempt, to gain an unfair advantage in assessment for yourself or someone else. It includes:

• Plagiarism: presenting someone else's words, ideas, images or data as your own without acknowledging them. This includes copying from a website, book or article, and paraphrasing too closely.
• Collusion: working with another person on an assessment that's meant to be your own work, without your assessor's permission.
• Contract cheating: getting someone else to complete your assessment, whether a friend, a family member or a paid service.
• Impersonation: having someone else complete an assessment as you, or completing one for someone else. Letting another person use your login for the first aid student portal or the Scope Institute learning portal counts too.
• Fabrication: making up or changing information, such as results, records, logbook entries or a supervisor's signature.
• Unauthorised use of AI tools: using an AI tool, such as a chatbot or AI writing app, to produce work you submit as your own, or using AI in a way the assessment doesn't allow.
• Sharing assessment materials: giving other students your answers or completed work, or copying, recording or posting assessment questions and tasks.
• Unauthorised help: using notes, devices, materials or help during an assessment that your assessor hasn't allowed.

An approved reasonable adjustment, such as extra time or assistive technology, is not misconduct.

We prohibit the use of cheating services: people or businesses that offer to complete assessments for students. We may report a cheating service to the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA), the national regulator for nationally recognised training.

Other behaviour can also be misconduct, such as harassment or bullying, damaging property, attending under the influence of alcohol or illicit drugs, or not following safety procedures or a clinic's policies. Our Terms and Conditions set out the conduct we expect and when we may suspend or cancel an enrolment for misconduct. We look into these concerns using the steps under "If we suspect misconduct": you'll see the evidence, have 10 business days to respond and can appeal the outcome.

Using AI tools

In every course:

• You must not submit work produced by an AI tool as your own.
• You must not enter patient information, clinic images or reports, or assessment questions into an AI tool.
• If you're not sure whether a use of AI is allowed, ask your trainer before you submit your work.

First aid and CPR

• Online theory: answer the questions yourself, without using an AI tool to find or write your answers.
• Practical assessment: you must not use AI tools or devices while you're being assessed, unless your assessor allows it.
• Studying with AI before an assessment, for example to explain a term, is allowed as long as you answer the assessment questions yourself.

Echocardiography courses

• Written work, online tasks in the learning portal and logbook entries must be your own work, not text generated by AI.
• Practical and clinic sessions: you must not use AI tools or devices while you're being assessed, unless your trainer allows it.
• Other uses, such as checking spelling and grammar or explaining a concept, are allowed. Acknowledge them by adding a short note to your work saying which AI tool you used and how.

How we check your work and your identity

Assessors check that your work is your own. They may ask you questions about your answers, compare your work with what they've seen you do, and check logbooks and records with your clinic supervisors.

At first aid and CPR practical sessions, we check your photo ID before we assess you, so we know the person being assessed is you. We don't copy it or record its details. Bring photo ID to your session. If you don't have any, contact the Student Support team beforehand.

We handle your work, the results of any checks and your identity information under our Privacy Policy.

Education first

Our first aim is to help you get it right. We explain what's expected, including how to acknowledge sources in written work. Your trainer can answer questions at any time.

If a problem looks like a genuine misunderstanding, such as missing references, your trainer will explain what went wrong and ask you to fix it or redo the task. That's feedback, not a misconduct finding. We use the formal process below when a concern is more serious, looks deliberate or keeps happening.

Questions about this policy can go to your trainer or to the Student Support team at admin@scopeinstitute.edu.au or 1300 508 809.

If we suspect misconduct

1. A trainer, assessor or staff member who suspects misconduct reports it, with the evidence, to the Administration Manager.
2. The Administration Manager decides whether there is a case to answer. If there isn't, the matter stops there.
3. If there is, we write to you setting out the specific allegation and all the evidence we have gathered.
4. You have 10 business days to respond, in writing or at a meeting. You can bring a support person. If you're under 18, we'll involve your parent or guardian, and they can come with you.
5. The Administration Manager considers the evidence and your response, then decides whether misconduct happened. If it did, they decide the outcome. We aim to give you the decision and the reasons in writing within 10 business days of receiving your response.

If the Administration Manager was involved in the matter or has a conflict of interest, our Chief Executive Officer (CEO) runs the inquiry and makes the decisions in steps 2 and 5 instead. While a matter is open, we hold the result of the assessment involved and will not issue a Statement of Attainment or certificate that depends on it.

Business days are Monday to Friday, excluding Victorian public holidays.

Outcomes

The outcome depends on how serious the misconduct was, whether it was deliberate and whether it has happened before. It will be proportionate. You can appeal it.

First aid and CPR

Nationally recognised training is assessed as competent or not yet competent. There are no marks, so we never apply mark penalties. Possible outcomes are:

• a written warning
• redoing the assessment task or being reassessed
• a "not yet competent" result for the unit, which means you need to be reassessed before we can issue your Statement of Attainment
• for serious or repeated misconduct, suspension or cancellation of your enrolment

Echocardiography courses

Possible outcomes are:

• a written warning
• redoing the task or logbook entry
• the affected work, hours or logbook entries not counting towards completing your course
• for serious or repeated misconduct, suspension from clinic sessions or the course, or cancellation of your enrolment

We treat a breach of patient confidentiality as serious misconduct.

If we cancel your enrolment, we work out any refund under our Fees, Payments and Refunds Policy.

Rules for echocardiography courses

Written work and logbooks

Any written work, online task or logbook entry you submit must be your own. Acknowledge the sources you use, such as textbooks, published guidelines and websites. Record only what you did or observed, and make sure every supervisor sign-off in your logbook is genuine.

Conduct at clinics

Clinical Rotations takes place at Heartscope clinics and approved clinical sites. Applied Echocardiography includes a lesson at a Heartscope clinic. Heartscope is run by our parent company, Scope Healthcare Limited. At any clinic, you must:

• follow the clinic's policies, code of conduct, dress code and safety procedures, and your supervisor's directions
• keep all patient information confidential, which means not discussing patients outside the clinical team and not copying, removing or sharing patient records, images or reports
• take photos or recordings only if your supervisor has given you express permission and everyone involved has agreed
• never post anything about patients, the clinic, its staff or other students on social media
• scan or examine a patient only if your supervisor has asked you to
• treat patients, staff and supervisors with courtesy and respect

Revoking a Statement of Attainment

If we find that a Statement of Attainment was issued because of misconduct, for example because someone else was assessed in your place or evidence was fabricated, we may revoke (cancel) it at any time. Before we decide, we will:

1. write to you explaining why we're considering revoking it, and give you the evidence
2. give you 10 business days to respond, in writing or at a meeting. You can bring a support person, and if you're under 18, we'll involve your parent or guardian, who can come with you
3. consider your response and give you our decision and the reasons in writing

If we revoke it, we update our records and the national record linked to your USI (Unique Student Identifier), and you must not use the statement again. ASQA can also cancel a Statement of Attainment, or direct us to cancel one.

We follow the same process before cancelling a Scope Institute certificate for an echocardiography course because of misconduct, and before cancelling any Statement of Attainment or certificate that was issued in error.

Appeals

You can appeal a misconduct finding, the outcome that followed it, or a decision to revoke a Statement of Attainment or cancel a certificate. Appeals are handled under our Complaints and Appeals Policy, which sets out the time limit and how to ask for an independent review at no cost to you. The person who decides your appeal must not have been involved in the original decision.

Records

We keep a record of each misconduct matter for 7 years after it closes. The record includes the allegation, the evidence, your response, the decision and the reasons.

For nationally recognised training, we keep your completed assessment items, including any involved in a misconduct matter, for at least 2 years after you complete the unit.

We store records securely, and only staff who need them can see them. We handle them under our Privacy Policy.