Petition Background
We ask all CSU academic staff to sign this petition. In order to protect fixed-term and casual staff who sign, this majority petition will not be submitted until 400 continuing academic staff have signed on.
The current Academic Integrity Change Proposal plans to replace Faculty-based Academic Integrity Officers with professional staff positions beginning in Session 2, 2025. This means a central team of professional staff will investigate allegations of academic integrity breaches and the positions of faculty-based Academic Integrity Officers will be disestablished.
Staff have made clear that if the Change Proposal is implemented, workloads of teaching academic staff will increase. This increase in academic workloads, thanks to the removal of key discipline-specific knowledge, has not been time-costed within the proposal.
Faculty-based Academic Integrity Officers have crucial expertise and a wealth of institutional knowledge that ensures fair, transparent and defensible decisions.
Their removal will endanger the proper academic nature of the decision-making process, which goes to the heart of CSU as an academic institution.
Teaching staff rely on the existing sound academic integrity process, which enjoys an excellent reputation. To remove academic staff from the academic integrity process undermines the ability of teaching staff to confirm that learning has occurred. It is vital for the public good that CSU graduates are properly prepared for professional life and for what employers rightly expect from them.
Who are we petitioning?
Dr Mark Bassett, author of the Academic Integrity Change Proposal
Petition Demands
We, the undersigned, are committed to excellence and integrity in teaching, research and support for students, none of which can be achieved without a robust academic integrity process.
Removing academic expertise from the academic integrity process constitutes a fundamental risk to the reputation of the institution and its graduates.
To ensure we continue to develop professionals who can be trusted to act ethically and in others’ interests, and to avoid risks to the University’s reputation, we call on Dr Mark Bassett and CSU management to withdraw the Change Proposal.