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ACE Rules

Clarified ACE Rules came into effect on 14 October 2024. These rules apply to students commencing HSC courses from Term 4 2024, for students sitting for HSC exams in 2025, and for students receiving the RoSA from October 2024.

For students sitting for HSC exams in 2024, the previous ACE Online rules continue to apply.

To learn more about how NESA has clarified the ACE Rules, refer to the information sheets.

Malpractice

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NESA is authorised under sections 20A and 95 of the Education Act 1990 (NSW) to:

  • prepare and distribute to schools information relating to the conduct of exams and other forms of assessment for HSC candidates
  • determine rules and procedures for the conduct of the HSC exams
  • consider all alleged breaches of exam rules found to have a case to answer and determine penalties
  • consider all alleged malpractice cases found to have a case to answer and determine penalties.
  1. The honesty of students in completing assessment tasks, exams, and tests underpins the integrity of the HSC. Dishonest behaviour carried out for the purpose of gaining unfair advantage in the assessment process undermines the standard of scholarship represented by the award of the HSC and constitutes malpractice.
  2. Students are responsible for knowing and complying with NESA’s ACE Rules and policies regarding malpractice, including:
    1. All My Own Work (or its equivalent), and
    2. Loading..., and
    3. HSC minimum standard: Malpractice and breaches of test rules, and
    4. HSC practical exams.
  3. NESA’s rules regarding malpractice must be read in conjunction with any course specific requirements outlined in Loading... packages including Assessment and Reporting information.

Categories

HSC (assessment)HSC credentialMalpracticeVET

Types of malpractice in HSC submitted works and practical components, HSC exams, and HSC minimum standard tests

  1. Malpractice is any attempt to gain an unfair advantage over other students.
  2. Malpractice in any form including plagiarism, collusion, misrepresentation, and breach of assessment conditions is unacceptable. NESA treats allegations of malpractice very seriously and detected malpractice will jeopardise a student’s award and achievement of the RoSA or the HSC.
  3. Student conduct amounting to malpractice may range from unintentional failures to comply with assessment rules and procedures to deliberate attempts to gain an unfair advantage involving intentional wrongdoing.
  4. Students who knowingly assist other students to engage in malpractice will be considered complicit in the malpractice.
  5. Serious and deliberate acts of malpractice amount to corrupt conduct and, where appropriate, NESA will report matters to the Independent Commission Against Corruption.

Misrepresentation

  1. Misrepresentation is when a student misleads or deceives others by presenting untrue information through the fabrication, alteration, or omission of information.
  2. Misrepresentation can include but is not limited to:
    1. making up journal entries for a project, and/or
    2. submitting falsified or altered documents1, and/or
    3. referencing incorrect or non-existent sources, and/or
    4. contriving false explanations to explain work not handed in by the due date.

Plagiarism

  1. Plagiarism is when a student pretends to have written, created or developed work that has originated from another source.
  2. When using work that has originated from another source, students must acknowledge the source material in accordance with course specific requirements.
  3. Plagiarism includes but is not limited to:
    1. copying someone else’s work in part or in whole, and presenting it as their own, and/or
    2. using material directly from books, journals, the internet, or any other offline/online resources, without appropriate acknowledgement of the authors and/or source, and/or
    3. building on the ideas or words of another person without appropriate acknowledgement, and/or
    4. using ideas, designs or the workmanship of others in practical and performance tasks without appropriate acknowledgement.

Collusion

  1. Collusion is when a student inappropriately collaborates with another student, group of students, person, organisation, or entity to produce work that was meant for individual assessment.
  2. Collusion includes but is not limited to:
    1. sharing answers to an assessment with other students, and/or
    2. submitting work that has been substantially contributed to by another person, such as a student, parent, coach or subject expert, and/or
    3. contract cheating by outsourcing work to a third party, and/or
    4. unauthorised use of artificial intelligence technologies.

Breach of assessment conditions

  1. All students undertaking an HSC exam or HSC minimum standard test must comply with the assessment conditions set by NESA.
  2. When assembling for, undertaking, and leaving the exam or test session, students are subject to the direction and supervision of the invigilator. At all other times, students must adhere to the rules prescribed by their school or alternate venue conducting the assessment.
  3. A breach of assessment conditions includes any breach of:
    1. HSC exam rules and procedures, and
    2. HSC minimum standard test rules and procedures.
  4. Malpractice occurs when a student breaches the conditions set for assessment in an attempt to gain an unfair advantage.

Online resources

Related ACE Rules

For further information

Please contact Student Support on (02) 9367 8117 or by email at studentsupport@nesa.nsw.edu.au.

Footnotes

  1. For example: medical certificates.

Categories

HSC (assessment)HSC credentialMalpracticeVET

Developing a school malpractice policy

  1. Schools must provide students with written advice about their school’s policies and procedures for Stage 6 school-based assessment including the school’s malpractice policy.
  2. NESA provides advice on managing malpractice in school-based assessment on its website, however, this is not a substitute for schools developing their own malpractice policy.
  3. Schools must:
    1. ensure students have been provided with an explanation of malpractice in school-based assessment
    2. provide students with the school’s malpractice policy at the commencement of their Preliminary studies
    3. comply with the school’s malpractice policy for all Stage 6 school-based assessment.
  4. A school’s malpractice policy must indicate:
    1. procedures for investigating suspected malpractice including the decision maker(s), and
    2. range of possible penalties for malpractice, and
    3. a student appeals process including the decision maker(s).
  5. Students are responsible for knowing and complying with their school’s malpractice policy for all school-based assessment.
  6. Student appeals concerning malpractice in school-based assessment tasks must be resolved at the school level.

Online resources

Related ACE Rules

For further information

Please contact Student Support on (02) 9367 8117 or by email at studentsupport@nesa.nsw.edu.au.

Categories

HSC (assessment)HSC credentialMalpracticeSchools OnlineVET

Malpractice Register

  1. The Malpractice Register is a state-wide register for malpractice in HSC school-based assessment tasks.
  2. The Malpractice Register allows NESA to record, assess, and analyse the number and type of malpractice offences that occur in HSC school-based assessment tasks. NESA publishes aggregated malpractice data annually on its website. The published data does not identify individual schools or students.
  3. Schools may use the malpractice data to support their decision making in malpractice cases.

Recording malpractice offences

  1. Schools must record malpractice offences in all HSC school-based assessment tasks in the Malpractice Register in Loading....
  2. For each malpractice offence, schools must record the:
    1. student identifier1, and
    2. course name, and
    3. offence date, and
    4. type of assessment task, and
    5. type of malpractice offence, and
    6. penalty applied.
  3. Principals must approve and finalise their school’s Malpractice Register at the time of entering grades and/or marks by the due date outlined in the Loading....

Online resources

Related ACE Rules

For further information

Please contact Student Support on (02) 9367 8117 or by email at studentsupport@nesa.nsw.edu.au.

Footnotes

  1. Schools must ensure each malpractice offence is represented uniquely. For example, if a group of students has engaged in malpractice, each student should be represented as a separate offence. For a student that has multiple malpractice offences, schools must use the same student identifier for the entry of each malpractice offence. Schools may use any unique identifying information as the student identifier eg a student’s school ID number.

Categories

HSC (assessment)HSC credentialMalpracticeVET

Suspected malpractice

  1. The Examination Rules Committee (ERC) deals with all cases of suspected malpractice in HSC exams and HSC minimum standard tests.
  2. Should malpractice be suspected or established after the release of results, the ERC has the right to conduct a retrospective review.
  3. The ERC will consider all available evidence to determine if malpractice or a breach of assessment conditions has occurred1, the appropriate penalty to be applied, and any other actions to be taken.
  4. Should malpractice be suspected in an HSC exam or HSC minimum standard test, NESA will:
    1. notify the student of the suspected malpractice, and
    2. provide the student with an opportunity to formally respond to the suspected malpractice and may invite the student to attend a meeting with the ERC.

Penalties for malpractice

HSC exams

  1. Where the ERC determines a student has engaged in malpractice for an HSC exam, the ERC may impose penalties including:
    1. zero or reduced marks for the exam, and/or
    2. course cancellation, and/or
    3. penalties may also be extended to other HSC exam results.
  2. Penalties imposed by the ERC may render the student ineligible for the HSC.

HSC minimum standard test

  1. Where the ERC determines a student has engaged in malpractice for an HSC minimum standard test:
    1. the result of the test attempt will not be used to demonstrate achievement of the HSC minimum standard, and
    2. penalties may be extended to other HSC exam results.

Online resources

Related ACE Rules

For further information

Please contact Student Support on (02) 9367 8117 or by email at studentsupport@nesa.nsw.edu.au.

Footnotes

  1. Where the ERC determines that a breach of assessment conditions has occurred, without resulting in the student gaining an unfair advantage over other students, the ERC may impose penalties.