Academic Misconduct Policy OP121 V3.1 2025.06

In accordance with the VET Quality Framework, STC/GBAT will ensure all students, staff and trainers understand STC/ GBAT do not condone cheating or plagiarism. This applies to all students who study with STC/GBAT.

Definitions
Plagiarism has been defined as “the copying of sections of any published work without acknowledging the source”.

Cheating is defined as:

• Handing in someone else’s work as your own (with or without the original author’s knowledge)
• Allowing someone to hand up your work as his or her own
• Several people writing an assignment and handing up multiple copies, all represented (implicitly or explicitly) as individual work; or
• Using any part of someone else’s work without proper acknowledgement.
• Copying or referring to another student’s work during assessment conditions or when individual work is required

Academic misconduct means:
Presentation of data with respect to all student’s work/ assessments that has been copied, falsified or in other ways obtained improperly. This includes;

• Including of material in individual work that has involved significant assistance from another person, where such assistance is not expressly permitted in the relevant Training Plan or Assessment instructions to students;
• Providing assistance to a student in the presentation of individual work, where such assistance is not expressly permitted in the relevant Training Plan or Assessment instructions to students;
• Falsifying or misrepresenting academic records;
• Plagiarism and cheating as defined above; other actions not covered by the above clauses that may be judged to be acts of academic misconduct.

All instances of alleged academic misconduct will be referred to the Training Manager or CEO for investigation. Students will be given an opportunity to discuss an allegation of academic misconduct or plagiarism at a meeting of relevant parties and their enrolment will be maintained throughout the period of investigation until an outcome is determined.

If STC/GBAT concludes that the action of the student constitutes deliberate academic misconduct, students will be advised of the penalty that applies.

Penalties range from failure in a Unit of Competency through to termination of enrolment and suspension from Solar Training Centre courses for up to three years.

A copy of this policy and its associated procedures are available to enrolled students by contacting our office.