The potential issues posed by incidents of malpractice and/or maladministration are numerous and can have several detrimental consequences to learners, staff, and the training centre as a whole. Such instances can cause, but are not limited to:

• Learners to become disadvantaged.

• Costly and time-consuming investigations.

• Reputational harm to the training centre.

• Reputational harm to Awarding Bodies.

Therefore, all training organisations must endeavour to prevent malpractice or maladministration from occurring, whenever possible. Where it is not possible to prevent this, cases of suspected or actual malpractice/maladministration should be dealt with quickly, thoroughly, and effectively. This policy has been reviewed and prepared with reference to terminology, ideology, and expectations (legal, professional, and ethical) which are mandated by Professional standards organisations such as, but not limited to, the Society for Education and Training (SET) (2019), the Education and Training Foundation (ETF) (2014) and the Equality and Human Rights Commission (2019).

K2 International EOC, will herein be referred to as “K2I”; therefore all educational and training staff, regardless of professional arrangement/employment, will therefore be referred to as “K2I staff” or “K2I Management” within this policy; potential and actual clients of K2I will be referred to as “K2I learners”.

This policy applies to all internal and external assessments, assignments and their record keeping. It is the responsibility of all K2I staff to detect, prevent and report all incidents which may constitute malpractice and/or maladministration. K2I staff must immediately report such incidents in line with this policy. This will include a minimum of a detailed handover given to the K2I Management Team (which should include someone in possession of an in-date Internal Quality Assurance qualification) in writing. This will ensure the appropriate actions are taken in a timely manner and appropriate records are kept. The K2I Management Team will also be responsible for oversight of such investigations, setting appropriate timelines and/or deadlines and the reporting of such incidents to the relevant Awarding and Regulatory Bodies as required.

K2I Staff and Management have a responsibility to:

• Identify and minimise the risk of malpractice by staff or learners;

• Identify and minimise the risk of maladministration by staff;

• Respond to any incident promptly and objectively;

• Standardise and record any investigation to ensure openness and fairness;

• Impose appropriate penalties and/or sanctions on learners or staff where incidents (or attempted incidents) are proven;

• Protect the integrity of K2I and its awarding bodies.

To do this, K2I Staff and Management will:

• Seek to avoid potential malpractice by using induction periods and the learner handbook to inform learners of the policy on malpractice and the penalties for attempted and/or actual incidents of malpractice;

• Show learners the appropriate formats and ways in which to record information such as answers on a test sheet and ways in which to conduct themselves during practical assessments;

• Ask learners to declare that their work is their own;

• Conduct any investigations in a form commensurate with the nature of any allegation;

• Ensure the handling of individual cases takes account of the needs of the student, including those arising from protected characteristics.

• Learner malpractice: any action by the learner which has the potential to undermine the integrity and validity of the assessment of their work. For example: plagiarism, collusion, cheating, etc.

• Assessor malpractice: any deliberate action by an Assessor which has the potential to undermine the integrity of the qualification being delivered. For example: favouritism, discrimination based on any protected characteristics, assessment practices which are not VACSR (Valid, Authentic, Current, Sufficient or Reliable).

• Plagiarism: submitting another person’s intellectual property, resources or submissions and claiming them as their own. This will include self-plagiarism for relevant courses.

• Minor acts of learner malpractice: To be handled by K2I staff. For example, if an assessor is made aware of or discovers acts of malpractice, they must not accept the work for marking, inform the learner, and explain to the learner they must re-do and re-submit their work.

• Major acts of learner malpractice: To be handled my K2I Management Team. For example, if widespread practices of malpractice are discovered such as repeated offences, violation of code of conduct or even law legislation, K2I management must conduct an appropriate investigation and inform relevant Awarding and Regulatory Bodies where necessary.

The following examples will not be tolerated by K2I as an educational organisation.

NB: This list is not exhaustive and other instances of malpractice may be considered by K2I Staff and/or K2I Management at their discretion.

• Plagiarism of any nature;

• Collusion by working collaboratively with other learners to produce work that is submitted as individual learner work;

• Copying (including the use of ICT to aid copying);

• Deliberate destruction of another’s work;

• Fabrication of results or evidence;

• False declaration of authenticity in relation to the contents of a portfolio or coursework;

• Impersonation by pretending to be someone else to produce the work for another or arranging for another to take one’s place in an assessment/examination/test;

• Inappropriate behaviour during an internal assessment that causes disruption to others;

• Inclusion of inappropriate, offensive, discriminatory, or obscene material in assessment evidence. This includes vulgarity and swearing that is outside of the context of the assessment, or any material of a discriminatory nature;

• Frivolous content - producing content that is unrelated to the examination;

• Unauthorised aids - physical possession of unauthorised materials (including mobile phones, MP3 players, notes, etc) in the examination room.

The following examples will not be tolerated by K2I as an educational organisation.

NB: This list is not exhaustive and other instances of malpractice may be considered by K2I Management at their discretion.

• Improper, inappropriate or excessive assistance to candidates;

• Inventing or changing marks for internally assessed work (coursework or portfolio evidence) where there is insufficient evidence of the candidates’ achievement to justify the marks given or assessment decisions made;

• Conducting assessment methods and/or using assessment types in a manner that is not considered VACSR;

• Failure to secure all records of assessment in line with relevant legislation and guidelines;

• Making fraudulent claims for certificates;

• Inappropriate retention of certificates;

• Allowing evidence, which is known by the staff member not to be the learner’s own, to be included in a learner’s assignment/examination/task/portfolio/coursework;

• Facilitating and allowing impersonation;

• Misusing the conditions for special learner requirements beyond what is reasonable and may influence the outcome of an assessment;

• Falsifying records/certificates, for example by alteration, substitution, or by fraud;

• Fraudulent certificate claims, that is claiming for a certificate prior to the learner completing all the requirements of assessment;

• Failure to comply with awarding body procedures for managing and transferring accurate learner data.

K2I Management is expected to:

• Establish and maintain a positive workplace culture which places academic issues at the core of the centre’s values;

• Appoint a named person responsible for ensuring the institution is dealing effectively with malpractice and maladministration;

• Appoint a named person (ideally a qualified IQA) to ensure policies and procedures are appropriate to the current situation;

• Appoint a named person responsible for monitoring and reviewing data;

• Maintain systems for keeping records of all incidents in line with current legislation and guidelines AND ensure all K2I Staff are aware of what action must be taken to ensure this;

• Identify how and where the resulting information will be discussed;

• Take reasonable steps to improve detection rates, including access to electronic detection tools;

• Create communication systems that allow consultation, discussion and dissemination of information and appropriate internal/external referrals.

All teaching staff are expected to:

• Ensure learners are provided with clear explanations of what is valued in academic work (integrity, honesty, wide-ranging research, choosing and using others’ ideas etc.) and why academic standards are important;

• Create, adapt and refer to relevant resources which clearly demonstrate the difference between acceptable and unacceptable practices;

• Model integrity themselves when they cite sources in their resources;

• Develop students’ study skills as an integral part of their course. These include notetaking, paraphrasing, and summarising information for study purposes;

• Work in collaboration with a multitude of internal and external points of referral to ensure all resources and practices used are VACSR;

• Ensure that all incidences of malpractice and maladministration, including the results of any conversations, meetings or feedback with students, are properly reported and recorded;

• Co-operate and consult with all relevant sources of internal and external referrals (other trainer, management, awarding bodies etc) with regards to allegations of malpractice and maladministration.

Internal Quality Assurers are expected to:

• Maintain a portfolio relevant to both their activities as an IQA and as a qualified professional (where appropriate) to ensure contemporary and relevant competence;

• Inform Awarding and Regulatory Bodies of all actual or attempted acts of malpractice and/or maladministration.

All learners are expected to:

• Only submit work for assessment that is their own original work;

• Seek advice on assessment practice and procedures from course tutors prior to submitting work;

• Avoid sharing electronic versions of their work with other students.

K2I staff, management and learners must be aware that Awarding and Regulatory bodies (which may include law enforcement) may wish to co-investigate or solely investigate certain incidents, particularly those with serious implications such as professional, legal end ethical consequences.

All investigations will adhere to the following principles:

• Confidentiality: Investigations usually necessitate access to information that is confidential to a centre or individuals. All material collected as part of an investigation must be kept secure and not normally disclosed to any third parties (other than the regulators or the police, where appropriate).

• Impartiality: Investigations will be undertaken by K2I Management and assessed against the specific facts/evidence of the case in arriving at a decision about intention and culpability.

• Rights of individuals: Where an individual is suspected of malpractice, they should be informed of the allegation made against them (preferably in writing) and the evidence that supports the allegation. They should be provided with the opportunity to consider their response to the allegation and submit a written statement or seek advice where necessary. They should also be informed of what the possible consequences could be if the malpractice is proven and of the possibility that other parties may be informed e.g. awarding and regulatory bodies, police etc. The appeals process should also be communicated to them at this time.

• Interviews: These interviews should be carried out in line with K2I’s policies and procedures. Alleged perpetrators may request that they are accompanied by a friend or colleague and these requests should be respected at all times by K2I Management. Any perpetrators under the age of 18 must be accompanied by a suitable chaperone, parent or guardian.

• Retention and storage of evidence and records: All relevant documents and evidence should be retained in line with Awarding and Regulatory Body guidance as well as relevant legislation.

• Decisions and action plans: All conclusions and decisions should be based on evidence. A course of proposed action should be identified, agreed between all parties involved, implemented and monitored by K2I Management to the point of completion. The actions should address the improvements that are required to the centre’s policies and procedures as well as any action that is related to staff, learners, resources and practices.

• Proportionality: Any decision on the outcome must reflect the weight of evidence and nature of the case.

• Sanctions: If punitive measures have been agreed, any such sanctions applied to the perpetrator should be proportionate with the level of non-compliance identified (and evidenced) as stated above in the “Proportionality” section.