Change your career, change lives

The Open University is the UK’s largest university, a world leader in flexible part-time education combining a mission to widen access to higher education with research excellence, transforming lives through education. Find out more about us and our mission by watching this short video (you will be taken to YouTube by clicking this link).

About the Role

The ACO:

• Upholds the academic integrity of the OU’s qualifications to the benefit of all students, by ensuring students do not benefit, gaining marks or credit and ultimately to graduate, based on work that is not their own.
• Educates students referred to them by clearly showing and explaining how they have demonstrated academic misconduct and breached OU policy, providing them with resources to improve their academic practice to prevent a future referral.

ACOs are often experienced central or regional academics, with experience of module production and/or presentation at the OU or, if new to the university, with previous experience of academic integrity work in a Higher Education Institution.  However, we welcome applications from candidates with experience of conducting investigations of a disciplinary nature, preferably in a regulated context.

Under Section 4.7 of the Code of Practice for Student Discipline, an Academic Conduct Officer (ACO) is the University’s disciplinary authority able to provide a ruling in cases where a student is deemed to have breached the Academic Conduct Policy. Academic Conduct Officers are the appropriate authority to apply an Academic Penalty (3.4 a. b. c.) or if appropriate, a warning (3.2) or a formal caution (3.3).

Several roles are available on a part-time basis 0.2 – 0.5 FTE (full-time equivalent). At the Open University, 1.0 FTE is 37 hours per week. These posts require a regular weekly commitment (typically 1–2 set days per week, depending on FTE) and are not suited to ad hoc or irregular working patterns.

Key Responsibilities

ACOs are responsible for a wide range of responsibilities relating to academic conduct within the Open University.

Each appointed ACO will have the following general responsibilities:

• Promote and uphold the OU’s Academic Conduct Policy.
• Promote good academic practice across their Faculty.
• Maintenance of a sound knowledge of university policy and procedures, both within the specified area of work and more generally in relation to academic conduct services.
• Contribute to University projects and initiatives as workload allows and as requested by the FBL (Faculty of Business and Law) Lead for Academic Integrity.

 Amongst the specific responsibilities of this role are to:

• Act as a Disciplinary Authority as set out in the Code of Practice for Student Discipline.
• Contribute to the work of the FBL Lead for Academic Integrity and other appropriate Faculty staff to promote the Academic Conduct Policy and good academic practice, and the use of software to detect plagiarism.
• Attend training sessions and engage with the mentoring schedule; take proactive steps to understand the principles for a fair investigation and OU policies.
• Review and investigate cases referred where students are suspected of misconduct, following procedures and guidance and decide outcomes based on the Academic Misconduct Tariff.
• Conduct academic conduct investigations to specified performance standards and the service level agreement (SLA), ensuring investigations and outcomes are recorded appropriately and accurately in VOICE (our student database system).
• Liaise with Module Team Chairs, Module results Panel Chairs, other ACOs, Cluster Managers and Staff Tutors as appropriate when investigating cases, including participating in Additional Assessments.
• As this is an official role of the University, attend the regular meetings of the University ACO Group to share and improve good University practice, reporting any issues encountered when investigating cases and to ensure benchmarking against fellow ACO decisions can be achieved.
• Provide occasional support for training and staff development sessions on academic integrity.
• Support the FBL Academic Integrity Lead’s work; support colleagues in academic conduct matters and procedures (such as helping with mentoring new ACOs, supporting the module team software training, helping with workshops for ALs on academic integrity).
• Contribute to the promotion of good academic practice within the Faculty and take an active role in advising module teams e.g. assessment design to reduce misconduct, awareness of academic conduct guidance, etc.

About You

Essential Criteria:

• Degree or Graduate Qualification in Law or Business. 
• Experience of conducting investigations of a disciplinary nature, particularly in a regulated context.
• A demonstrable understanding of academic integrity and its importance within an HEI (higher education institution) context.
• The ability to prioritise and manage a dynamic workload to meet academic conduct performance standards and SLA.
• Communication and interpersonal skills commensurate with the role, with the ability to respond professionally and constructively to emotive student interactions.
• The ability to interpret information and present and explain complex or sensitive decisions clearly.
• The ability to act independently, exercise judgement within a framework of rules and principles and solve problems, largely under your own initiative.
• An understanding of the importance of data protection and the awareness to act immediately to report any personal data breach through the correct channels.
• An understanding the importance of safeguarding and knowing how to report safeguarding concerns.
• Strong attention to detail and accuracy, and administratively meticulous.

Desirable Criteria:

• Practical experience of resolving academic conduct cases within an Open University or other HEI role.
• Familiarity with scholarship on teaching, learning and assessment (including student use of GenAI) and the integral importance of academic integrity.

Support with your application

If you have any questions, or need support or adjustments relating to your application, the recruitment process, or the role, please contact us on 01908 541111 or email careers@open.ac.uk quoting the advert reference number.

What's in it for you?

At The Open University, we offer a range of benefits to recognise and reward great work, alongside policies and flexible working that contribute towards a great work life balance. Get all the details of what benefits we offer by visiting our Staff Benefits page (clicking this link will open a new window).

Flexible working

We are open to discussions about flexible working. Whether it’s a job share, part time, compressed hours or another working arrangement. Please reach out to us to discuss what works best for you.

Working Location: It is anticipated that a hybrid working pattern can be adopted for this role, where the successful candidate can work from home and the office. However, as this role is contractually aligned to our Milton Keynes office some attendance in the office will be required in response to business needs. We’d expect this to be at least once per month, but this could be more often as business needs dictate. Full-time working based from our Milton Keynes site is also supported if this is preferred by the candidate.  Expenses associated with travel to our Milton Keynes site are not reimbursable. 

Next steps in the Recruitment process

Interviews are likely to be held in early - mid July.

Early closing date notification

While most roles will remain open until the advertised closing date, applications may be reviewed on an ongoing basis. In some cases, vacancies may close earlier if a sufficient number of suitable applications have been received and equality impacts have been appropriately considered. All roles will remain advertised for a minimum of one week before any early closure is implemented.

If you have started an application or were in the process of applying when the advert closed, we encourage you to get in touch. We are committed to understanding individual circumstances and can offer further support where needed, including reasonable adjustments for applicants with protected characteristics.

How to apply

To apply for this role please submit the following document(s):

• CV
• Supporting statement of up to 1000 words clearly demonstrating how you meet the essential criteria for the role.

You can view your progress and application communications when you are logged into our recruitment system.  Please check your spam/junk folders if you do not receive associated email updates.