Resolving Academic Misconduct

The University of Texas at Austin provides faculty and instructional staff two options to resolve potential academic misconduct:

Option 1: Refer the alleged violation to Student Conduct and Academic Integrity in the Office of the Dean of Students through the online Academic Misconduct Report Form, or
Option 2: Submit a faculty disposition to Student Conduct to review for adherence to institutional process, and to give the student the opportunity to meet with our staff.

Process Requirements

Faculty can refer any alleged academic misconduct directly to Student Conduct, as well as when a student does not agree to the violation or recommended grade impact through the faculty disposition process.

Faculty can directly approach student(s) to discuss suspected academic misconduct. This process requires that a faculty member provide the student notice of the misconduct, supporting documentation, an opportunity to respond to the allegation, an overview of student rights, and a suggested sanction agreed to by the student. Submit the faculty disposition through the online Academic Misconduct Report Form for Student Conduct to review for adherence to institutional process, and to give the student the opportunity to meet with Student Conduct staff. Please note the final decision on sanctioning falls to the Office of the Dean of Students and faculty input is considered a recommendation.

Submit faculty dispositions and referrals no more than 30 days after you become aware of or should have reasonably become aware of the alleged violation. If your inquiry is likely to take more than 30 days, please email studentconduct@austin.utexas.edu.

Students must be informed of due process rights for any alleged violation of university policy. Share Student Rights and Responsibilities when notifying student(s) of suspected academic misconduct.
Students engaged in the academic misconduct process must be permitted to complete all assignments and attend classes until the matter is resolved.
Students should be assigned an Incomplete ("X") grade until the conduct process is completed and both the student and instructor have received the outcome document from Student Conduct.

Students may not Q-drop a course once a faculty member or Student Conduct notifies them of suspected academic misconduct, during the conduct process, and/or if the student has been found responsible for a violation of academic misconduct. If notified of a Q-drop by a student involved in the conduct process, notify Student Conduct immediately.

The university uses the preponderance of the evidence standard to determine if a student has violated university policy. This standard of information requires supporting documentation that demonstrates it is more likely than not that the violation occurred. All supporting documentation must be shared with the student and Student Conduct and Academic Integrity.

Visit Report an Incident to report both academic and behavioral misconduct.

Please submit all supporting documentation, including but not limited to:

Course syllabus
Student's paper, test, lab report, homework assignment, project (along with source material)
Screen shots of documents that were uploaded to a website without authorization
Any correspondence between you and the student
Any witness statements and names