Student amnesty

Many students do not know that teaching materials such as the lecture slides and the tutorial workbooks provided to them are owned by ACU and that uploading them to a share site is a breach of copyright. It also potentially constitutes collusion, even if students don’t know those who are downloading and benefiting from their work.

Uploading to share sites is a common practice. Many students genuinely do not realise that it is wrong, but it puts them at risk of breaching ACU’s Student Conduct Policy and the Academic Integrity and Misconduct Policy.

ACU is granting students a six-week amnesty for breaching copyright to give them time to remove any material they may have uploaded.

Students are being asked to:

1. Remove any ACU material they have uploaded to share sites.
2. Email a list of the documents they have removed to: academic.integrity@acu.edu.au

The amnesty will be in place from 30 August 2021 until 11 October 2021. After this, the Copyright Office will follow up on ACU material that they find on share sites.

Collusion will not be tolerated. Any breaches of the Academic Integrity and Misconduct Policy will be pursued in accordance with this policy.

What staff can do to help

• Use ACU branded templates for teaching materials, such as PowerPoint slides and assessment templates. If materials uploaded to share sites are ACU branded it makes it easier for the Copyright Office to issue take-down orders.
• Refer students to legitimate study support services and resources. These include:
  • ACU’s Academic Skills Unit
  • Studiosity 24/7 study help.