5. Admissions of wrongdoing/level of contrition of student

If a student has admitted the misconduct and/or displays a high and genuine level of contrition for the misconduct, in the form of submission of a formal letter of apology to the Vice-Chancellor, this should be taken into account where appropriate.

1. The notice of penalty, the reasons and committee reports should explicitly state that the admission of wrongdoing and/or statement of contrition have been taken into account. Failure to do so would generally be taken to indicate that the admission or level of contrition was not given weight.
2. The effect of admission or level of contrition on the penalty should be stated insofar as it is appropriate to do so. This effect could encompass any or all of the matters to which the admission or level of contrition may be relevant. Where other matters are regarded as relevant in a particular case, e.g. assistance to authorities, this should be included in the report or notice of decision and penalty.
3. An admission of wrongdoing or statement of contrition should generally be assessed in relation to the seriousness of the misconduct. One consideration is the timing of the admission or statement of contrition. Another factor is the potential time saved by University staff to undertake investigations and attend hearings. The relevance of an early admission will vary according to the circumstances of the case.
4. In some cases the admission or statement of contrition, in combination with other relevant factors, could lead to a degree of leniency in relation to the type of the penalties imposed. In some cases the weight given to the admission or statement of contrition will be significant in assessing parity between other students involved in the misconduct.

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