1) The Code of Academic Integrity (hereinafter referred to as the Code) of the “Karaganda Medical University” Non-Commercial Joint Stock Company was developed and compiled in accordance with the following regulatory documents:

1. The Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated July 7, 2020, No. 360-VI “On Public Health and Healthcare System”;
2. The Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated November 18, 2015, No.410-V “On Anti-corruption”;
3. The Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated July 27, 2007, No.319-III “On Education”;
4. The Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated July 1, 2024, No.103-VIII “On Science and Technology Policy”;
5. The Charter and specifications of the Academic Integrity League;
6. The Charter of the “KMU” NCJSC;
7. other laws and regulations in education.

2) The Code determines the basic concepts of integrity and ethic of the community of professionals, the principles of academic integrity, the rules for the relation of persons involved in the educational process, establishes the rights and obligations of all participants in the educational process in terms of academic integrity, determines the types of violations of academic integrity and the procedure for actions if they are committed.

3) The purpose of this Code is to establish rules regulating the behavior of all persons involved in the educational process in order to ensure academic integrity, creating a strong moral stance that excludes any manifestations of unfairness and misconduct.

4) The objectives of the implementation of the policy of academic integrity are to promote improvement of quality of training of specialists, academic and teaching staff, to ensure the academic integrity for students, faculty and employees, prevention of violations of academic integrity by means of settlement of issues and situations.

5) As a member of the Academic Integrity League, “KMU” NCJSC insures the conscientious fulfillment of its obligations and recognizes that the promotion and protection of academic integrity is the result of the mutual efforts of all persons involved in the educational process.

6) Definitions used in this Code:

1. Academic integrity is a set of values and principles that establishes the code of conduct in the development of curriculum and the implementation of learning activities, including written assignments (test paper, term work, essay, degree work, dissertation/thesis work), and the style and conduct of the student and instructor, based on intolerance to any manifestations of unfairness among all persons involved in the educational process, excluding the obtaining learning outcomes, pedagogical and / or research work using any form of deception.
2. Persons involved in the educational process are students, faculty and employees of the university.
3. Student is a person studying at each stage in the “KMU” NCJSC.
4. Faculty is the teaching staff of the university, including instructors (see. – instructor), heads of chairs, heads of departments, professors, associate professors, senior lecturers, research fellows, clinical instructors, and trainers.
5. Instructor is a scientific and teaching worker of the university, who trains students in educational programs of pre-university, higher and postgraduate education in accordance with their branch of study, scientific skills and the terms and conditions of the employment agreement.
6. Employee is a member of the administrative and managerial or educational support staff of the university.
7. Integrated control is monitoring procedures used at the university in the educational process, during the continuous, midpoint, summative assessment and final assessment.
8. Documentary inspection is a type of inspection carried out based on the review and analysis of documents for authenticity, accuracy and originality in order to prevent falsification and plagiarism.
9. Assessed/evalauted work is a work or assignment performed by a student within the framework of continuous and final assessment to determine his/her academic achievements in a certain period of study (written assignment, test paper, lab sessions, practical work, self-study, research work, tests, term work, dissertation/thesis work, project, and etc.).
10. Citation (reference) is a reference to the source, an indication that the material used is not the material of the student. Methods of citing: direct speech, indirect speech.
11. Abstracting: if the statement is not given in the text itself, however, the author of the work refers to other people's ideas or information.
12. Reference / footnote is complete data about the source used in the work. If the source is not mentioned or cited in the papers, it should not be cited.
13. Final thesis is diploma/degree work (project), master's thesis (project).

7) Principles of academic integrity of persons involved in the educational process:

1. Academic integrity. Academic integrity is the foundation of the university's academic and scientific process.
2. Education quality. The university provides with an opportunity only for the best students to complete their studies and is fully responsible for the quality of training, which is confirmed by the diploma of the “KMU” NCJSC.
3. Observance of standards, author’s rights and his/her successors. Compliance with clear, fair and objective standards of academic integrity and recognition of the authorship of works that is copyright item, through the correct transfer of someone else's speech, thoughts and indication of sources of information in evaluated and / or publicly presented works.
4. Liability. Each person involved in the educational process ensures conscientious performance of his/her duties and is responsible for ensuring mandatory plagiarism checks for all written assignments (regardless of their nature, content and volume) submitted for academic and / or research purposes.
5. Independence/autonomy in working on assignments received by the student for mastering study material and evaluated as an academic achievement: the student independently performs an individual task or makes an independent contribution to group work on a project, the degree of which is also evaluated.
6. Mentoring/guidance. University’s instructors act as mentors (instructors), instilling a responsible attitude to the principles and standards of academic integrity, intolerance to their violation, fostering a sense of mutual respect and justice.
7. Openness. Transparency, free exchange of information and ideas between all persons involved in the educational process.
8. Equality. Mutual respect for the rights and freedoms of all persons involved in the educational process, their compliance with this Code and equal responsibility for the violations committed.
9. Insistence. Each person involved in the educational process imposes strict requirements to himself/herself and his/her students within the framework of their system of fair and impartial assessment of learning outcomes.

8) All persons involved in the educational process have the right:

1. for familiarization with this Code;
2. to demand from persons involved in the educational process to comply with the basic principles of academic integrity;
3. to freely express one's own opinion in the learning process, to freely receive and spread scientific, educational information and ideas subject to ethical standards and restrictions that are provided for by the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan for the benefit of national security, public order, protection of the reputation and rights of others;
4. to acquire information regarding any changes and / or new developments in the documents regulating relations in the area of academic integrity;
5. to ensure privacy when initiating consideration of impending or completed cases of academic misconduct.

9) Students have the right:

1. for assistance in learning citation, self-check and verification of their own work using licensed information programs.

10) The university’s faculty have the right:

1. to examine academic and research works (abstracts, term papers, essays, internship reports, degree works and dissertations/theses, research articles) of students for compliance with the principles of academic integrity;
2. for assistance in training in the use of licensed information programs for checking written assignments, dissertations/theses, projects for authenticity/originality;

11) Educational support staff of the University has the right:

1. to acquire accurate information about current tasks and the deadlines necessary for their high-quality performance;

12) Administrative and managerial staff of the University has the right:

1. to issue acts regulating the work of divisions to ensure the principles of academic integrity, and mandatory for all persons involved in the educational process within its authority.

13) All persons involved in the educational process are required to:

1. strictly follow the principles of academic integrity;
2. use reliable and trusted sources of information;
3. observe the standards of professional ethics in communication with all persons involved in the educational process;
4. prevent any possibility of violation of this Code within the limits of their functions.

14) In addition, students are required to:

1. carry out written assignments within the individual curricula (abstracts, term papers, essays, internship reports, degree works and dissertations/theses, research articles) based on their own ideas, indicating authorship and ideas of other people;
2. require assessment only in strict accordance with the criteria established by the University and with which the student was familiarized in advance;
3. independently perform all types of assessed work;
4. refrain from unauthorized use of artificial intelligence when performing assessed work, except in cases previously agreed upon with the instructor; in cases where the use of artificial intelligence has been previously agreed upon with the instructor, mark the content generated by the neural network.

15) The university’s faculty is required to:

1. carry out academic review and assessment of the knowledge and skills of students in strict accordance with the criteria established at the University, with which the student was familiarized in advance;
2. independently develop study materials based on current academically and scientifically confirmed data;
3. not to use criteria that were not announced in advance when assessing the academic achievements of students;
4. be unbiased when assessing academic achievements, not to give consideration to requests, no matter who they come from; be guided only by the criteria established in the academic policy (course policy);
5. strictly observe the requirements of digital security and privacy when working with materials of all types of monitoring of academic achievements;
6. provide students with reliable information on all aspects of the educational process within their competence and use the forms and methods of teaching and assessment in strict accordance with the syllabus of the subject taught;
7. teach to search and choose reliable and trusted sources, and ways of using footnotes, references; citation rules based on international recommendations;
8. announce and comment on the assessments made to students, guided only by the criteria established in the academic policy (course policy); to grade into the electronic journal day to day, except in cases related to the technical state of the university's electronic systems;
9. refrain from changes to previously announced grades to students for biased and unsubstantiated reasons.

16) Educational support staff of the university is required to:

1. strictly observe the requirements of information security and privacy when working with materials of all types of monitoring of academic achievements.

17) Administrative and managerial staff of the university is required to:

1. coordinate the work for response within this Code in case of violation of the standards of the Code;
2. resolve conflicts occurring in the process of detecting the facts of violation of academic integrity, in accordance with this Code, the present legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan and other internal regulatory legal acts of the university;
3. keep records of cases of violation of the principles of academic integrity.

18) All persons involved in the educational process must exclude:

1. using devices when passing all types of tests specified in paragraph 28 of this Code, and other illegal methods of acquiring information and/or transmitting it to anyone else;
2. copying and asking for help from other students during the learning process, including exams, and providing data or assistance to another person during an examination/midterm examination;
3. collaborating on actions that violate accepted principles of academic integrity;
4. fabrication and falsification (an attempt to give incorrect data as reliable, forging an assessment or assignment answers, forging records, signatures in documents, etc.);
5. selling or otherwise helping to purchase and/or sell assignments, answers to assignments, finished works, hiring contractors for academic work

19) All persons involved in the educational process have the right to be protected by all legal means from unsubstantiated accusations for violating the Code.

20) This Code stipulates the following types of violations of academic integrity by students, faculty and employees of the “KMU” NCJSC:

1. Plagiarism: partial or complete adoption of materials from other sources without providing proof of authorship or indicating the source. Plagiarism is the deliberate presentation of the products, piece of work and ideas of other authors as one's own.

Plagiarism can manifest itself in various forms:

- citation of the source without the use of required punctuation (quotation marks) and/or without indicating the source;

- using someone else's work as one's own without attribution;

- paraphrasing the work without reference to the source;

- substitution of abstracting work by copying;

- using someone else's ideas or argument without reference to the source or the absence of the author in the list of sources used;

- presentation of a written assignment as one's own, written in whole or in part by another person;

- presentation of one’s term paper (project), which was completed for another course (self-plagiarism);

- unlawful use of artificial intelligence in performing assessed work, except in cases previously agreed with the instructor.

Sources from which ideas, expressions of ideas, or works of others are taken include (but are not limited to): books, articles, documents, compositions and phrases, speeches, chemical formulas, artwork, laboratory reports, research results, calculations, and their results, diagrams, developments, computer reports, computer code/software. In cases where artificial intelligence is used, as previously agreed with the instructor, mark content generated by the neural network.

2. Duplication/doubling – providing the same work (a part of work), performed by another student, graduate, former student.
3. Copying – on exam, test, during the final assessment (also using clues, including oral answers, using crib sheets, prepared form of answers, textbooks and other sources (primary sources, maps, charts, tables), devices specified in paragraph 28 of this Code and/or other technical/ printing means during the assignment, copying off another student's work).
4. Conspiracy:

- agreement on the performance of any assessed work by others;

- agreement of the persons involved in the educational process deliberately violating the principles of academic integrity;

- deliberately avoiding collaborative work and getting an unfair assessment with the help of others;

- deliberately avoiding collaborative work and getting an unfair assessment with the help of others;

5. Secret arrangement of persons involved in the educational process for illegally providing materials.

- Examples of the secret arrangement of the persons involved in the educational process are considered copying written assignment, providing one’s own work for copying, one student doing work for another student; the delivery of work, performed by another person (other students, parents, private tutors, instructors and etc.) as one’s own, transfer of the test content, test paper, test tasks by another student without permission of the instructor, various forms of collective deception with the purpose of misleading other persons involved in the educational process (students, parents, faculty).

- Teamwork is not regarded as an example of a secret arrangement, but is a form of organization of the educational process. The teamwork is activities with a group on academic pursuit. The teamwork implies open forms of interaction between students within a group. Results, achieved within teamwork are common to all group members, which should be reflected in any form of fixing the result (in oral answer or in written forms) indicating all participants of the group.

6. Deception:

- presentation of false excuses in case of non-performance, delayed performance of assessed works;

- deliberately assisting to deception: permission to copy from the assessed work, hints, giving crib sheets, textbooks and other sources of information in all monitoring of academic achievements;

- deliberate forging or damage to the evaluated work of another student;

- obtaining partial or complete material prior to conducting all types of tests with the assistance of another student, instructor or employee (test tasks with answers, examination papers and tasks, tasks for the written exam);

- buying or otherwise obtaining the work in the course of control activities for submission as one’s own (term papers, diploma/degree works, master's theses and etc.);

- selling or other ways of assistance in the purchase and/ or selling finished works in the course of test activities (term papers (projects), graduation works, and etc.).

7. Falsification of documents and assessments:

- purposeful misrepresentation and providing fictitious experimental findings, materials, surveys, reports without actual performance;

- listing of referred sources, not used in writing the work;

- submission of forged or falsified documents and materials; forgery of assessments, results of evaluation of answers to the task.

8. Unlawful use of information or devices:

- using information on electronic format, digital media, hard copy, technological devices during all types of tests;

- getting any answers of the work in the course of test activities by any means;

- taking away from the office/room and/ or copying from the computer the materials of the instructor, regarding tests on paper and electronic media;

- illegitimate use of audio and/or video equipment during sessions to get a recording of the demonstration task, performed by another student or for the purpose of recording the session as a whole;

- unauthorized access to secure information;

- using devices specified in paragraph 28 of this Code, reference sources (books, records, papers, etc.) when passing all types of tests.

9. Personation during exams, tests, performing laboratory research or other tasks, and during diagnostic workup.
10. Obstruction and interference – blocking or obstructing educational or scientific activity of other people for an unfair academic benefit.
11. Disruption of sessions and consultations. Any action or behavior aimed at disrupting the session or consultation.
12. Unauthorized access to confidential information, such as examination materials, test questions and other materials in order to benefit.
13. Unauthorized distribution of data – publication, distribution or disclosure of confidential information to third parties without prior agreement. Confidential information includes academic information, data and documents that have been collected and are stored without general access.

21) Both students and faculty, employees of the “KMU” NCJSC are responsible for violations of academic integrity.

22) Faculty, administrative and managerial staff, student organizations of the university are responsible for detecting and preventing academic misconduct.

23) Instructors ensure that students are informed, that students' work is checked for plagiarism using a software and other reliable methods, confirmed by the authorized officials of the university.

24) Librarians provide information to the students and instructors, materials on the design of the resources used in the works, bibliography, references to the books, magazines and websites, which is available to all participants of the program for application.

25) Disciplinary sanction for violation of principles of academic integrity is imposed by the management of the “KMU” NCJSC submitted by a dean and/or protocol resolution by the relevant committee of the university.

26) Persons involved in the educational process should remember that they are morally responsible for violating the principles of academic integrity.

27) Any case of violation of academic discipline will be considered based on the principles of impartiality, consistency, justice, timely resolution and further inquiry. The cases of violation of academic integrity are considered in an individual basis.

28) Preventive measures:

1. close monitoring of the organization and conducting all types of monitoring of academic achievements;
2. checking evaluated and/or publicly presented works by means of information program of anti-plagiarism.
3. introduction of automatic services of verification of the originality/authenticity of the work. Verification of all graduation, research works, curriculum developments for text uniqueness should be carried out with mandatory application of the anti-plagiarism information program.

29) In order to prevent violations of the Code, it is prohibited to bring mobile phones with during all types of monitoring of knowledge; tablets; calculators; digital watches with alarm functions, computers or memory; pagers; audio and video recording devices; radio, digital players; reference sources (books, notes, papers, and etc.); briefcases, travelling bags and etc.; any food; outerwear; drinks with stickers and labels.

30) Conducting constant targeted work on the development of academic integrity of all persons involved in the educational process, involvement in performing research-related tasks with skills development, relevant to research culture and research ethics.

31) Persons involved in the educational process are responsible for violating the principles of academic integrity.

32) Violations of academic integrity can be exposed:

1. during educational process;
2. during continuous (evaluation) and summative assessment (midterm assessment);
3. during final assessment (comprehensive examinations, defense of graduation works);
4. when conducting academic research work and evaluation of its outcomes.

33) Decisions on penalties for violations of this Code are made participatory with obligatory involvement of students of the university.

34) In the event of academic misconduct on the part of a student during any type of assessment, the following measures are concerning the student:

1. in the primary detection of academic misconduct (accidental, occasional, a minor violation: conversations; turns; clues; irrelevant distraction of the examiner; the presence of objects prohibited in paragraph 28) during assignments/works, which are submitted on the midterm (session) and final assessment: a student can be given no more than two verbal warnings (remarks) from the attendant teacher (proctor), examiner and/or specialist of the Registrar’s Office. If a student is given a third warning, a report is drawn up, signed by the instructor/examiner (proctor) and the Registrar’s Office specialist. In this case a student, who has violated the provisions of this Code, is allowed to complete assignments/works, submitted for midterm (session) assessment. The Act of Violation is submitted to the dean to record the violation in a special register and the imposition of penalties with mandatory participation of instructors of relevant subject and on the recommendation of the Student Self-Government Committee. A copy of the act and the decision on disciplinary sanction is kept in the student’s personal file.
2. in primary detection of gross violation of the principles of academic integrity (using objects prohibited in paragraph 28; assumption of types of violations, under paragraph 20) during the performance of assignments/works, submitted for midterm (session) and final examination, a report is drawn up, signed by the instructor/examiner (proctor) and Registrar’s Office specialist. In this case a student, who has violated the provisions of this Code, is allowed to complete assignments/works, submitted for midterm (session) assessment. The Act of Violation is submitted to the dean to record the violation in a special register and the imposition of penalties with mandatory participation of instructors of relevant subject and on the recommendation of the Student Self-Government Committee. A copy of the act and the decision on disciplinary sanction is kept in the student’s personal file.
3. If recurrence of a violation of the Code is detected (for the second time for the entire previous period of training) during the performance of assignments/works, submitted for midterm (session) and final assessment: a report is drawn up, signed by the instructor/examiner (proctor) and Registrar’s Office specialist, the original copy is submitted to the dean, student’s results of the work are cancelled (0 (zero) is rated as a result of the examination regardless of number of stages). Violation is recorded in a special register, decision is made and submitted with all documents confirming the fact of violation of the Code, to responsible structural divisions. A copy of the act is kept in the student’s personal file;
4. if required, the dean arranges a meeting between parents and the instructor/ examiner/academic advisor and deputy dean of the school or faculty for conducting a trilateral conversation on the fact of detecting the violation.

35) During the educational process, the following disciplinary sanctions can be applied to students for violating the principles of academic integrity:

1. for a first-time and occasional violation of the principles of academic integrity (except for subparagraphs 7, 9, 12, 13 of paragraph 20), after a comprehensive review of the case with the involvement of representatives of the Student Self-Government Committee, the dean can issue a reprimand or a severe reprimand, which will be recorded in the student's personal file and reflected in the student's transcript;
2. for serious and gross violations of the principles of academic integrity (with the exception of subparagraphs 7, 9, 12, 13 of paragraph 20), after a comprehensive review of the case with the involvement of representatives of the Student Self-Government Committee, the dean can issue a severe reprimand with a note in the student's personal file or a request for the student's expulsion and a reflection of this violation in the student's transcript;
3. for violations of subparagraphs 7, 9, 12, 13 of paragraph 20 and other serious violations that discredit honor and dignity of the “KMU” NCJSC, the student shall be subject to expulsion with a record of the violation in the student's transcript.

36) In cases of conflict of interests and/or inability to make a decision on violations of the principles of academic integrity and/or participation in violations by students of several schools/faculties/institutes, consideration of the fact of violation of this Code can be initiated by the committee for monitoring compliance with the rules established for students.

37) Monitoring compliance with the principles of the Code during the educational process and in conducting continuous assessment is assigned to faculty members and head of the division. Control procedures should be included in the syllabus. Detected violations of the Code are recorded officially in the internal memorandum, and are addressed to the corresponding School, Faculty and/or supervising Vice-Rector.

38) Schools and Faculty must store information on violations of this Code. In case if the dean finds that a violation has occurred, he/she must verify the data of the disciplinary and other violations of the student.

39) In the event of the violation of the Code by an instructor or employee, the person who detected the violation submits an internal memorandum to the compliance officer for an employee investigation, the results of which should be reviewed by the Disciplinary Committee. The penalties are determined by the Chairman of the Board – Rector of the “KMU” NCJSC on the recommendation of the Disciplinary Committee and the results of the employee investigation by the compliance officer in accordance with the Labor Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, up to dismissal.