Academic integrity

Academic misconduct presents a threat to the world-class reputation of UK higher education. Students who cheat risk their academic and future careers, and also potentially enter the workforce without the necessary skills, knowledge and competence.

Academic integrity is extremely important to our members. We continue to identify sector issues and identify practical solutions by conducting research and developing supporting resources and activities.

Our video explains what academic integrity is, what the consequences of academic misconduct can be, and highlight the different kinds of support available to students within their own institutions.

The UK-wide Academic Integrity Advisory Group contains experts from across the UK and informs our activity in protecting academic integrity. Our web page explains more about the Group and lists its members.

Academic Integrity Advisory Group

QAA publications

Quality Compass: Revisiting academic integrity from a student perspective

Publication date: 15 Nov 2022

Our fifth edition of Quality Compass focuses on academic integrity as a positive approach to encouraging good academic conduct. In addition, it highlights approaches to identifying and managing misconduct cases, including applying restorative approaches.

Author:	QAA
Format:	PDF
Size:	1.80 MB

Contracting to Cheat in Higher Education: How to Address Essay Mills and Contract Cheating

Publication date: 20 Sep 2022

This latest version of Contracting to Cheat Guidance aims to support providers to review institutional policies following the introduction of legislation to criminalise essay mills in England.

Author:	QAA
Format:	PDF
Size:	4.91 MB

Assessing with Integrity in Digital Delivery

Publication date: 07 May 2020

This paper considers academic integrity as an integral part of learning, teaching and assessment practice. It provides an overview of the approach providers can take against the use of essay mills and other forms of contract cheating, plagiarism and academic misconduct.

Author:	QAA
Format:	PDF
Size:	0.36 MB

PODCASTS

Blog - ENAI Conference highlights

Members of the QAA Academic Integrity Advisory Group share highlights from the the European Network for Academic Integrity (ENAI) Annual Conference on Ethics and Integrity in Academia (July 2023).

Generative Artificial Intelligence - curation of resources

To help the sector, QAA has curated a range of resources relating to Generative AI and the ways it can be used as a positive tool while also maintaining academic standards. We have funded this curation work through QAA Membership fees. It is made publicly available for the benefit of the sector.

Collaborative Enhancement Projects

Our Collaborative Enhancement Projects produce a collection of resources linked to academic integrity. These include a model to aid the development of student academic integrity champions, guidance materials to deliver inclusive and accessible education with academic integrity, and good practice guides for accessibility and equity in proofreading.

QAA has developed an Academic Integrity Charter for UK higher education. It is intended to provide a baseline position upon which UK providers, as autonomous institutions, can build their own policies and practices to ensure that every student’s qualification is genuine, verifiable and respected.

Since launching the Charter on 21 October 2020, more than 200 institutions have already signed up. The Charter demonstrates the sector’s commitment to academic integrity, and helps us raise awareness of the impact of essay mills.

Academic Integrity Charter

Members can access materials relating to this area of work on our Membership Resources Site.

Our Academic misconduct penalties advice and supporting webinars help members to develop fair and proportionate academic misconduct processes - we are continuing to explore the impact these approaches have on students’ learning experiences.
In collaboration with members, an interactive webinar explores how course leaders can use innovative assessment design to reduce cases of contract cheating.
Our Combatting academic fraud webinars focus on institution-wide approaches to reducing academic misconduct and provided members with practical examples to adopt.
A webinar focusing on academic misconduct data helped members to identify and address over-representation of BAME students in academic misconduct processes.
A workshop on enhanced digital assessment security is designed to unpack some of the challenges providers have faced with digital assessment and explore the techniques and resources which mitigate risk to assessment and academic integrity.

You may also find the following work in this area helpful.

The extensive technical language that has evolved around academic integrity and misconduct can appear daunting. To demystify this terminology the European Network for Academic Integrity (ENAI) and Irish National Academic Integrity Network (NAIN) have produced some useful resources for learners, academics, and professional staff including: