Privacy and confidentiality in the filing cabinet Un(der) locked and key (Bill 2008)

Purpose of case study Title of case: Privacy and confidentiality in the filing cabinet Target audience: Policy and Governance Units, Subject Coordinators, Teachers, Administrative Staff Key issue being addressed: How to incorporate ethical principles into everyday faculty information access practices Purpose of the case: To assist staff to work through their own policy to respond appropriately to an inappropriate staff request Materials and preparation needed to answer case:  University academic integrity policy, and procedures.  Full case scenario  Jackson, J, Fleming, K, Kamvoumias & Varnham, S 2009, Student Grievances and Discipline Matters Project: Good Practice Guide for Handling Complaints and Appeals in Australian Universities – Good Practice Guide (ALTC Funded Project), Southern Cross University, Lismore. 2 Academic Integrity Standards Project

Our research Analysis of academic integrity policies of 39 Australian universities  Most academic integrity policies (56%) made no mention of confidentiality. Interviews with 28 senior academic integrity stakeholders at 6 Australian universities No. 1 recommendation for good practice:  Provide appropriate and on-going professional development for all staff in relation to academic integrity policy and process. 3 Academic Integrity Standards Project

Case Study: Practice of one academic unit is to maintain a local register of investigations and outcomes into allegations of student breaches of academic integrity Custom and practice has been that any academic staff member from the unit who has a suspicion about a student can access the filing cabinet (where register is kept) A new staff member questions the existing practice of ‘open access’ to the local register of academic misconduct matters New staff member claims that this practice is contrary to principles of privacy 4 Academic Integrity Standards Project

Questions for discussion What does your university policy say about privacy and confidentiality in relation to the investigation of allegations of breaches of academic integrity? What does your university policy say about privacy and confidentiality in relation to the finding of investigations of allegations of breaches of academic integrity? According to the policy of your university who is permitted access to information about allegations/investigations/findings in relation to student academic misconduct? How does the ‘custom and practice’ of your university align with the intent of the relevant policies? What advice might you offer the new staff member who seeks to have the custom and practice of this particular faculty change? 5 Academic Integrity Standards Project

References and resources Bill, S (2008). Un(der) locked and key, digital image, by billaday, accessed on 29 August 2012, This image is used with permission underhttp:// an Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Creative Commons License. Bretag, T., Mahmud, S., East, J., Green, M., James, C., McGowan, U., Partridge, L., Walker, R. & Wallace, M. (2011). Academic Integrity Standards: A Preliminary Analysis of the Academic Integrity Policies at Australian Universities, Australian Universities Quality Forum, 29 June-1 July, Melbourne, Australia. Bretag, T., Mahmud, S., Wallace, M., Walker, R., James, C., Green, M., East, J., McGowan, U. & Partridge, L. (2011). Core elements of exemplary academic integrity policy in Australian higher education, International Journal for Educational Integrity, Vol 7(2), pp. 3-12, available online: Jackson, J, Fleming, K, Kamvoumias & Varnham, S (2009). Student Grievances and Discipline Matters Project: Good Practice Guide for Handling Complaints and Appeals in Australian Universities – Good Practice Guide (ALTC Funded Project), Southern Cross University, Lismore. 6 Academic Integrity Standards Project

For further resources from the Academic integrity standards project, please go to: Support for this project/activity has been provided by the Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching. The views in this project do not necessarily reflect the views of the Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Australia License.Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Australia License 7 Academic Integrity Standards Project