Non-academic elements include ability to meet professional standards, character, competence, and physical and mental health. Your behaviour must demonstrate that you are a safe and suitable entrant to your chosen profession. This includes your behaviour away from your studies.
What consitutes impaired fitness to practise?
Indications that your ability to meet professional standards include (but are not limited to) the following:
Academic misconduct at any level
Non-academic misconduct offences
Health and safety breaches
Failure to disclose convictions or other required information
Inaccurate or falsified information
Unsafe practice, incompetence or requiring too much supervision
Behaviour away from your studies, including criminal conviction, disruptive behaviour, inappropriate use of social media
Safeguarding concerns
Poor mental or physical health or serious physical impairment that interferes with your ability to practise safely
Poor communication or language skills
Unprofessional behaviour, for example:
indiscipline, failure to follow dress code, inappropriate use of mobile phone, poor timekeeping, poor attendance
lack of respect, aggressive or poor attitude or laziness
failure to self-reflect, lack of insight
failure to engage with investigations into unprofessional behaviour
poor self-management, lack of personal accountability
dishonesty
breaking patient confidentiality
Failure to seek help or engage with appropriate services in relation to health issues
Source: Office of the Independent Adjudicator Good Practice Framework
If there are concerns about your fitness to practise, we will take a staged approach.
Stage 1: Low level concerns
If your behaviour does not meet the standards required on your regulated programme, a designated officer from your department or faculty will talk to you in the first instance. You will have the opportunity to present your view and provide any pertinent information.
Examples of low-level concerns include (but are not limited to) the following:
poor punctuality
missing submission deadlines
unauthorised absence from teaching sessions.
Your previous behaviour and any patterns of misconduct (both academic and non-academic) are taken into account at this stage.
Where possible we will give you the support you need to learn from your mistakes. For example, you may be given an action plan with specific conditions or targets to meet within a certain timeframe.
If concerns about your behaviour continue, we may need to take further action.
In such instances, you may be required to attend a fitness to practise panel. This is a serious step and the consequences could be significant.
If there are concerns that your fitness to practise is impaired, your department may conduct an investigation. Examples of impaired fitness to practise include:
if your behaviour poses a risk to yourself or others
if your conduct fundamentally conflicts with the standards expected of the profession
The investigation will be conducted by a senior academic from your faculty. However they will be independent to you, your programme and your immediate academic department. You will be notified who the investigating officer is.
The investigating officer’s role is to gather information and evidence to inform a decision on whether your fitness to practise is impaired. During their investigation they may meet with and/or take a written statement from you, from the person who raised the concern and from any other people they deem relevant to the case.
If the investigation outcome is that your fitness to practise is not impaired, any of the following recommendations may be made:
no further action will be taken against you
you may be referred for monitoring under the low-level concerns procedure. This may include the provision of a written warning against further misconduct
you may be referred to other departments for appropriate support
If the investigation outcome is that your fitness to practise is impaired, a fitness to practise panel will be convened.
When the University’s internal procedures are complete, we will send you a completion of procedures letter. This explains that if you are dissatisfied with the final outcome, you can refer your matter to the OIA for review.
The OIA is an independent body whose role is to review individual complaints from students. You must complete the University’s internal fitness to practise process before contacting the OIA.
There are further details about the OIA Scheme on the OIA website.
