Links to the Academic Integrity Policy and a guide to the policy are included at the end of the page.

Academic Concern

If it is considered that your work contains an academic concern, your course team will contact you via email to advise you of this. You will be invited to attend a meeting for guidance to advise on the issues of concern within your work. It is usual for the work to be graded A4 which will over-ride any grade provided, and for you to be required to submit a resit for the assessment. However, for early submissions on your course, where there is sufficient work to be graded, your tutors may grade your work.

Academic Offence

If the misconduct is more serious or at a later stage in your studies it will be considered as an academic offence. You will be contacted by the Academic Practice Officer to advise of this. Communication is via email to both your student account and the personal account listed on your SITS record (it is important to keep this up to date).

The email will inform you of the offence, provide the evidence of the offence, and provide you with a form (AOF3) to complete to indicate your response. You will be asked to respond by a certain date, after which your case will be considered by an Academic Conduct Panel.

After considering the evidence of the offence you will need to decide whether you accept the allegation, or do not accept the allegation. You are able to contact the Student Union for advice.

You will be required to return the AOF3 form with a statement explaining why the offence occurred, or why you do not accept the allegation. If you do not accept the allegation you may be required to provide evidence to support your case. You will not be required to attend the meeting unless on review of your statement, the panel consider that it is necessary to discuss the issue with you. Your case will be considered based upon your written statement and evidence provided, so you should ensure that you provide all the information that you wish the panel to provide.

Following your response you will be informed of the date that your case will be considered by the panel. The panel will consist of usually three academic staff members, from different departments and they will consider your statement and all the information that you have provided, along with the evidence provided by your course team. It is important that you provide all the information that you wish to be considered by the deadline set, as late responses may be too late to be provided to the panel.

After considering your case the panel will make a decision as to whether there is an offence, and if so what penalty is applicable.

Within a week of the panel concluding, you will be informed of the decision and of any penalty applied. You are not permitted to appeal a panel decision, though you may appeal the process if you feel that it has not been followed correctly.

Invite to a viva

Where there are indications that the submitted work has been completed or assisted by a third party (either another person, or through use of AI to write, generate or amend the work for you) then you will be provided with the opportunity to explain. This may include being invited to a viva meeting where you will have the opportunity to answer questions about the work to show your understanding.

Student viva guidance [DOCX]

The Academic Integrity Resource (AIR) has information and guidance relating to Academic Integrity, referencing and the Academic Misconduct Process within the University of Bedfordshire.

Academic Integrity Policy [PDF]

Student guide to Academic Integrity Policy [DOCX]

Philippa Armitage
Academic Practice Officer
University of Bedfordshire