Purpose
This policy outlines the requirements and procedures for the Intellect to suspend and cancel a student’s enrolment and the procedures on student request for deferment.
Policy
The Intellect can only defer or temporarily suspend the enrolment of a student on the grounds of:
- Compassionate or compelling circumstances (e.g. illness where a medical certificate states that the student is unable to attend classes), or
- Misbehaviour by the student.
Students may also have their enrolment suspended due to misbehaviour which can also be grounds for cancellation of studies.
Students have the right to appeal a decision by the College to defer, suspend or cancel their studies and the College will not notify DHA of a change to the enrolment status until the internal complaints and appeals process is completed.
Deferring a semester
Students who would like to defer their studies must first speak to the PEO. An application to defer form must be completed which will need to be approved by the PEO. Prior to applying to defer their program students must ensure that they have paid any outstanding Intellect fees.
Deferral of studies by international students is permitted only in compassionate or compelling circumstances such as serious illness, death in the family or for some other reason such as misbehaviour by the student.
Students will be required to provide evidence of the compassionate or compelling circumstances.
Failure to Start Course
Students who are unable to arrive and start their course on time as agreed or no later than seven (7) days of the agreed start date will have to apply to the College to defer their studies.
Suspension due to Academic misconduct
All students are expected to maintain high standards of academic honesty and integrity. Academic misconduct is defined as attempts by students to cheat, plagiarise or otherwise act dishonestly in undertaking an assessment task, or assisting other students to do so. Students are considered guilty of cheating if they seek to gain advantage by unfair means such as copying another students’ work, or in any way mislead a lecturer or tutor about their knowledge, ability, or the amount of original work they have done.
- a) Student’s responsibilities:
1 During Examinations
- a) Students must not help or receive assistance from other students
- b) Students must not request the loan of or lend materials or devices to other students
- c) Students must not bring any materials into the examination room other than those specified for that examination
- d) Students must not use computer software or other devices during an examination other than those specified.
A student may be excluded from an examination in a unit for any of the following reasons:
- unauthorised absence from class.
- failure to meet course requirements, for example non-submission of assignments or failure to attend class or tests.
- academic misconduct
- general misconduct (see below)
2 Other assessment tasks
a) Students must not copy or paraphrase any document, audio-visual material, computer-based material or artistic piece from another source except in accordance with the conventions of the field of study
- b) Students must not use another person’s concepts, results or conclusions and pass them off as their own
- c) In cases where the assessment task is intended to be individual work not group work, students must not prepare an assignment collaboratively and then submit work that is substantially the same as another student’s assessment.
- d) Students must not ask another person to produce an assessable item for them.
b) Intellect’s responsibilities:
Procedural fairness
- Students must be treated fairly, with dignity and with due regard to their privacy
- Students are to be regarded as innocent of the alleged misconduct until they have either admitted to it or been found by proper inquiry of the student conduct committee to have so behaved.
- Past misconduct is not evidence that a student has behaved in the same manner again.
- Each case is dealt with on its own merits and according to its own circumstances with the proviso that the first instance of misconduct will be penalised more leniently than subsequent instances of misconduct.
c) Penalties
Penalties imposed will take into account the nature and the extent of the misconduct
- A student’s second offence is penalised more severely than their first offence and a third offence will result in exclusion from the College.
- The following penalties may be imposed: a warning, a reduction in grades, receiving zero for an assessment event, failing the unit, exclusion from the College.
Notification and appeal
Students must be notified in writing of penalties as a consequence of academic misconduct.
- The grounds for appeal are:
- a) procedural irregularities, and/or
- b) factual errors on which the decision was based and which were of such magnitude as to invalidate the decision
- Appeals must be lodged in writing with the PEO within 20 days of the date of the student being notified of the consequence.
General misconduct
Students are expected to respect other students, staff and property so that learning and teaching can take place freely, safely and without impediment due to the misconduct of others.
General misconduct is where a student: acts dishonestly; harasses other students or staff; interferes with students or staff; prevents or disrupts learning; disobeys/fails to comply with contractual or legal requirements; misuses, damages or steals College property or the property of others; alters/defaces College documents or records; prejudices the good name of the College, or otherwise acts in an improper manner.
The College will report all criminal acts committed by its students to the relevant authorities.
The following examples indicate the kinds of behaviour which constitute student misconduct.
They are for illustrative purposes and are not intended to be exhaustive. Student misconduct may occur when a student:
- a) contravenes any rules or acts;
- b) prejudices the good name or reputation of the College;
- c) prejudices the good order and governance of the College or interferes with the freedom of other people to pursue their studies, carry out their functions or participate in the life of the College;
- d) fails to comply with conditions agreed in the contract;
- e) wilfully disobeys or disregards any lawful order or direction;
- f) refuses to identify him or herself when lawfully asked to do so by an officer of the College;
- g) fails to comply with any penalty imposed for breach of discipline;
- h) misbehaves in a class, meeting or other activity under the control or supervision of the College, or on College premises or other premises to which the student has access as a student of the College;
- i) obstructs any member of staff in the performance of their duties;
- j) acts dishonestly in relation to admission to the College;
- k) knowingly makes any false or misleading representation about things that concern the student as a student of the College or breaches any of the College’s rules;
- l) alters any documents or records;
- m) harasses or intimidates another student, a member of staff, a visitor to the College, or any other person while the student is engaged in study or other activity as a College student, because of race, ethnic or national origin, sex, marital status, sexual preference, disability, age, political conviction, religious belief or for any other reason;
- n) breaches any confidence of the College;
- o) misuses any facility in a manner which is illegal or which is or will be detrimental to the rights or property of others. This includes the misuse, in any way, of any computing or communications equipment or capacity to which the student has access at or away from the College premises while acting as a College student, in a manner which is illegal or which is or will be detrimental to the rights or property of others;
- p) steals, destroys or damages a facility or property of the College or for which the College is responsible; or
- q) is guilty of any improper conduct.
- r) fails to attend and participate in classes regularly.
Penalties for general misconduct
Penalties imposed will take into account the nature and the extent of the misconduct
- A student’s second offence is penalised more severely than their first offence and a third offence will result in exclusion from the College.
If the student admits to the alleged misconduct, the PEO may impose one or both of the following:
- a charge for the cost of damage to facilities and equipment
- temporary exclusion from the College.
The PEO may then impose the penalty of permanent exclusion from the College in the case of physical or verbal abuse of students or staff of the College, repeated or severe misconduct, or in the case of criminal acts.
Financial Misconduct
Any student who fails to maintain up-to-date payments for their course will be seen as breaching their financial obligations. Any student who falls more than one month behind in their payments will be notified that if they do not make payment within 7 days, of all outstanding amounts, they will have their enrolment cancelled on the grounds of financial misconduct.
Notification and appeal
Students must be notified in writing of penalties as a consequence of general misconduct
- The grounds for appeal are:
- procedural irregularities, and/or
- factual errors on which the decision was based and which were of such magnitude as to invalidate the decision
- Appeals must be lodged in writing with the PEO within 20 days of the date of the student being notified of the consequence. The process will commence within 10 working days from the date of receipt of the student’s appeal.
Procedure for recording deferments – Exceptional Circumstance
- Student requests deferment of course studies
- Request made in writing and evidenced with a medical certificate or letter outlining the exceptional circumstances for which they are seeking a deferment
- Request to be assessed by PEO
- If circumstances deemed exceptional a deferment will be granted
- Student will be granted a deferment for 12 months before enrolment will be cancelled
- Circumstances not deemed exceptional will not be granted
- College reports student to Secretary of DHA via PRISMS
Staff and Student Awareness of Policy
All staff are provided with a copy of this policy at their initial induction. Students are provided with a copy of this policy in the International Student Handbook which is made available to them on line prior to enrolment and at their course induction.