Academic Governance

Can I take someone with me to the meeting? What is their role?

You can have a support person with you at the meeting. This can be anyone except a lawyer.

A support person is useful because:

• They are there for you and can provide you with moral support.
• They can remind you if you forget to mention something.
• They can take notes for you in the meeting so you can concentrate on what is being said.

A support person may assist you but is not there to represent you and cannot present your case for you.

The support person can only talk to the Committee if the Chair gives permission. 

The Student Advocates at the Tasmania University Union are available to assist you free of charge. See Student Advocates for their contact details.

How is the meeting run?

In the meeting there will be:

• the 3 Committee members
• a representative of the Governance & Legal office who will act as Secretary

The Chair will explain to you how the meeting will be run. The Chair of the Committee will run the meeting. 

The Committee will understand that you are nervous and will try and make the meeting as comfortable for you as possible.

The Committee will ask you questions so they can understand, from your point of view, what occurred. 

The Committee will invite you to say anything you wish in your defence or in mitigation (ie difficulties that you have encountered eg illness). 

If you don't understand what is happening feel free to tell the Chair.

Once you have finished your interview, the Chair will ask you if you wish to stay to hear the School staff being interviewed. 

If you wish to stay and listen you should not interrupt the interviews.    

The Chair will ask you, at the end of each staff member's interview, if you have any questions. 

You should not ask the staff member questions directly.  You should tell the Chair what your question is and the Chair will ask the staff member.

If you choose not to stay for the staff members' interviews you will be called back when the interviews are completed and told what was said. 

At the end of the interviews you will be given a final chance to talk to the Committee members before they make their decision. 

You will not be able to talk to the Committee again or email them after this point so it is important to say everything you need to because this will be your final chance before they deliberate. 

The Academic Misconduct Committee will then discuss the interviews and the documents before them and may or may not make a decision on the day. 

You may or may not be told verbally of the decision on the day (this is up to the Chair of the Committee on the day).