Code of conduct
Short, and written so that both sides are bound by it. This forms part of the enrolment terms.
What we owe you
- Teach what the published curriculum says, in the hours it says, and tell you in advance if that has to change.
- Mark your weekly assignment and give written feedback, every week.
- Telephone you if you go quiet for two days, and keep trying.
- Tell you the truth about your progress, including when it is not good, and early enough for you to do something about it.
- Never attest to a skill we did not watch you demonstrate.
- Answer a complaint on the published timescale, with reasons.
What we expect of you
- Turn up, or say you cannot. Not attending is survivable; disappearing without a word is what ends people’s levels. One message to your coach solves almost everything.
- Do your own work. See academic integrity below: it is not what you probably expect.
- Treat everyone in the room and in the channel as a colleague. No harassment, no discrimination, no abuse, including in the squad channels and on WhatsApp.
- Look after other people’s data. If a project brings you real data about real people, you handle it as the programme taught you to: minimum necessary, not shared, not uploaded abroad, deleted when the project ends.
- Look after the campus. The lab machines, the connection and the backup power are shared, and they are the reason some people can study at all.
- Do not represent yourself as acting for the academy with a client, an employer or a vendor unless we have asked you to.
Academic integrity, including AI
Using AI tools is expected, not forbidden. You will use them throughout, and being good at it is part of what we assess. The line is not about whether you used a tool; it is about whether the work is yours to defend.
- Allowed, and encouraged: using AI to get unstuck, draft, translate, explain an error, clean data or review your own work, then checking it and being able to reproduce and explain every part of what you submit.
- Not allowed: submitting work you cannot explain line by line at the portfolio defence; passing off someone else’s project as yours; fabricating data, a result or a client; or sitting an exam for someone else or having someone sit yours.
The defence is the check. Every project is defended out loud to an assessor who asks awkward questions. That is a far better test of whether the work is yours than any detection tool, and it is why we do not use detection tools.
If something goes wrong
- A conversation. Almost everything ends here. Your coach or the pedagogical head raises it, you explain, and we agree what happens next.
- A written note on your record, setting out what happened, what we agreed, and by when. You get a copy and you may add your own account to it.
- A formal hearing with the centre head. You are told the allegation in writing beforehand, you may bring someone with you, and you always have a right of reply before any decision is taken.
- Sanction. Ranging from a warning, to a mark of zero on a piece of work, to suspension, to exclusion from the level. The decision is written and reasoned, and the refund consequences are in the refund policy.
- Appeal. To the establishment council, in writing, within ten working days. The council did not take the original decision.
Harassment, violence, threats and academic fraud can shorten these stages and may lead to immediate suspension while we look into it. Nothing shortens your right to be told the allegation and to reply before a final decision.