General misconduct
Find out what action you can take if you received a general misconduct letter.
If you’ve received a general misconduct letter, it means your behaviour may have breached the university's standards. Actions that fall under general misconduct include being disruptive, offensive or harmful to others, gaining unauthorised access to IT systems and damaging the university's property or reputation. You'll find a full list in the Student Misconduct Procedure.
Federation takes all forms of misconduct seriously, and there are significant penalties if allegations are upheld (see Section 52 of the Federation University Australia (Students) Regulations 2022 (PDF 357 KB)). While you'll always have the right to respond to and contest allegations, you can be immediately excluded from campus and/or University activities without a hearing if:
- there is a reasonable expectation that others will come to harm as a result of the behaviour
- the behaviour seriously disrupts the conduct of University business
- the matter has been, or will be, referred to the police.
What to do next
Follow these steps or download a pdf version (168 KB).
Make sure you understand what you're being accused of. If no evidence is provided for the charge, or the evidence appears unclear or incomplete, you can reply to the email to ask questions and request further evidence.
Before you write a response, you need to decide what your goal is: to have the allegation dropped or the penalty reduced. You should also seek external legal advice if the matter relates to potentially illegal behaviour under civil or criminal law, because anything you write or say can be used in further legal proceedings.
Your response should describe the incident from your point of view and explain why you don't agree with the charge. You should also include any evidence that will support your claims. Not sure how to start? Use our letter template (PDF 188 KB).
A hearing is like an interview. It'll be conducted by a single person or a committee of relevant University staff. If the Student Misconduct Committee runs the hearing, there may be a Federation student and/or external members of the community present. No one who has been involved in the case prior to the charge should be part of the decision-making process.
The hearing chair will explain the charge and ask you questions. You have the right to answer their questions (or not), make extra points and ask questions.
We encourage you to take a support person to your hearing. They can't act as a legal professional or speak (unless invited to do so by the chair), but they may take notes.
The outcome of your hearing will be sent to you via email.
How Student Advocacy can support you
You ask for help at any point in the process, but the earlier the better. We can:
- clarify what you're being accused of and explain the penalty
- advise you on your rights and the procedures
- provide you with information and templates to help you write a response
- review a draft of your response and give you feedback
- prepare you for your hearing
- attend the hearing with you as a support person
- help you with any further appeals processes.
Schedule a time to chat
Counselling
If you'd like to talk to someone about any challenges you're having, consider booking time with one of our counsellors. The service is free and confidential.