Where ANU's own rules on academic integrity, generative AI, extensions and extenuating circumstances actually live, summarised here in this course's own voice and linked back to the university's actual text rather than paraphrased into something looser than the original.
Policies and support#
This course doesn’t get to write its own rules on integrity, extensions or special circumstances — ANU already has them, they apply to every course you take here, and they’re binding whether or not this page existed. What this page does is tell you, in plain terms, what those rules mean for the work you do in SLOP1241, and point you at the actual university text so you can check it yourself rather than trust a paraphrase. If this page and the linked policy ever disagree, the linked policy wins.
Academic integrity, and where AI actually fits into it#
ANU’s own principle is blunt, and worth stating without softening it: work you submit has to be genuinely yours, and you have to be able to stand behind it — show a draft, explain a choice, sit a viva — if someone asks how you made it. That’s not a compliance detail, it’s the same standard this course asks of a finished thing generally: it isn’t done until you could defend how it got that way.
The generative AI part is thinner than most students assume, and it’s worth knowing exactly how thin. The 2021 Academic Integrity Rule doesn’t mention generative AI at all — ANU hasn’t written one university-wide rule for it. Instead the decision is pushed down to the course: your class summary and assessment brief are where this course’s actual stance on AI use lives, not this page. If it isn’t stated there, ask your convenor before you assume either way. Where AI use is permitted, ANU’s guidance treats it like any other source — it gets acknowledged, not absorbed silently into your own voice, and the assessment specs on this site already build that habit in (“the work is yours, with any assistance declared”).
Extensions#
There are two different doors here, and using the wrong one wastes the days you’re trying to save. A short extension — under 10 working days, and one that still lands before marked work comes back — is your Course Convenor’s call directly; email them before the deadline, with whatever documentation backs up an exceptional circumstance beyond your control, and they owe you a decision within three working days. Anything bigger than that, or anything that would push your new deadline past the marking return date, isn’t a convenor decision anymore — it’s an Extenuating Circumstances Application, below. Miss a deadline with no extension in hand and the standard penalty applies: five per cent of the available marks per 24-hour block late, weekends and public holidays excluded.
Extenuating circumstances#
An Extenuating Circumstances Application (ECA) is the university’s process for the situations a normal extension request isn’t built to handle: an extension of 10 or more working days, a new due date that falls after marked work is already returned, or an exam you missed or had to abandon partway through. The qualifying grounds are specific — significant illness, hardship, bereavement, disaster, elite sporting or performance commitments, emergency service duties, or recognised religious and cultural observance — and every one of them has to be genuinely unforeseeable and independently documented. Foreseeable things, however disruptive, don’t qualify: a holiday booked in advance isn’t an extenuating circumstance no matter how badly it collides with a deadline. An ECA has to be lodged within five working days of the original due date, generally gets one shot per assessment task, and any appeal against its outcome is due within ten working days of the decision. If you think you might need one, the ANU page above is the actual source — read it before you apply, not after.