Minister launches new TEQSA Academic Integrity Toolkit
Australia’s Minister for Education, the Hon Dan Tehan MP, has officially launched TEQSA’s new Academic Integrity Toolkit.
The Minister launched the new resource, which was developed with $150,000 in funding from the Australian Government, during an academic integrity webinar attended by more than 500 people from across the sector earlier today.
TEQSA Chief Commissioner Professor Nick Saunders, who also spoke at the launch event, noted the toolkit was a key part of TEQSA’s ongoing approach to engaging with the sector to support academic integrity.
“TEQSA considers academic integrity a key issue, recognising that breaches of academic integrity have broad and serious implications, in addition to the risks to the reputation of Australian higher education,” Professor Saunders said.
“The development of good practice in maintaining academic integrity remains a key focus for TEQSA and this new toolkit, with its strong focus on supporting the sector to prevent, detect and respond to commercial academic cheating services, will complement our existing resources.”
The new toolkit includes a guide to substantiating when contract cheating occurs, benchmarking tools, advice on policy and case studies from Australian higher education providers.
It was developed following a series of workshops in late 2019 and the sector was also consulted through the beta-release of the toolkit in June.
Professor Saunders also thanked the project team, comprising the late Professor Tracey Bretag from the University of South Australia, Dr Guy Curtis from the University of Western Australia, Dr Margot McNeill from the International College of Management Sydney and Dr Christine Slade from the University of Queensland, for their work.