Code of Practice for Student Discipline (July 2017 update)
Warning: the content within this page reflects the information available to students in the 2016/17 academic year. As such, this information may no longer be factually accurate.
In July 2017, The Open University made some changes to the Code of Practice for Student Discipline. These changes will apply to any student whose conduct has been reported to a University disciplinary authority.
The changes made
Many of the changes relate to the organisation of information in the Code of Practice, or are due to a clarification or simplification of the previous version.
- Separation of policy from procedures
- Re-ordering of certain sections of the Code of Practice
- Revision of the offences to reduce the number and simplify the list of offences
- Consequential changes to offences referred to in other parts of the Code
- Revision of the penalties to clarify how they relate to one another
- Change of title from Director, Students, to Director, Academic Policy and Governance, and from PVC (Research) to PVC (Research and Academic Strategy)
- Clarification of exclusion of text not being a disciplinary or academic penalty but a normal academic practice
- Clarification of the Vice Chancellor’s delegation of power to suspend a student and the reporting of cases to the Senate Clarification of process of informing student of outcome of initial CDC investigation
- Clarification of process before, during and after Central Disciplinary Committee (CDC) hearing
- Amalgamation of policy and procedures for appeals to CDC and Special Appeals Committee (SAC)
- Amalgamation of policy and procedures before, during and after appeal
- Relocation of terms of reference for CDC and SAC to the Appendix
Some of the changes are more substantive
- Amendment to reflect that an informal caution is recorded on student records
- Amendments to executive authorities responsible for particular offences and the penalties they can impose
- Reduction of timescales for executive authorities to refer to disciplinary authorities
- Amendments to disciplinary authorities responsible for particular offences and the penalties they can impose
- Reduction of timescales for disciplinary authorities to investigate an alleged offence
- Reduction of timescales for the CDC secretary to inform a student of an investigation
- Introduction of timescales for a student to respond to a disciplinary authority and CDC investigation
- Reduction of timescale for a student to lodge an appeal
Please talk to your Student Support Team if you need any further information. You can find out how to contact them on Contact the OU.
