The University’s Academic Misconduct Policy governs all forms of academic misconduct which may be described as cheating. Regardless of whether any case is ultimately proved against them, a student who is accused of cheating in some way will participate in the procedures. It is likely that one of your tutees may be accused of breaching the Academic Misconduct regulations at some point, and when this happens they may well turn to you for advice. For this reason, you should familiarise yourself the with Academic Misconduct regulations and the procedures for investigating complaints, so that you can best support your tutee through this process.
Your tutee may ask your advice on how to respond to a formal allegation of using Academic Misconduct. In this circumstance, you should confidentially and non-judgementally discuss the situation with them. Clearly, you cannot support your tutee in cases where this would result in a conflict of interests, such as if you are the individual bringing the case against the student.
If an allegation of Academic Misconduct is proven against one of your tutees, you may wish to gently discuss this with them at your next individual meeting. The discussion should be approached from a supportive, developmental perspective which aims to help them understand how to avoid repeating the practices which led to the allegation.
In some cases, a marker may decide that a student has plagiarised but upon investigation it is deemed that it is merely a case of poor scholarship and does not warrant further formal investigation. If this occurs to one of your tutees, you may wish to gently discuss this with them at your next individual meeting. The discussion should be approached from a supportive, developmental perspective to help them understand how to improve their practices and avoid any future allegations.