Assessment and Teaching: Policy on Student Placement

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Approving Authority:	Council
Establishment Date:	8 August, 2002
Date Last Amendment:
Nature of Amendment:
Contact Officer:	Director, Academic and Student Services

POLICY: Placement providers may establish, in consultation with the University, requirements for students to demonstrate fitness to undertake placements. These requirements may include health or other checks or a self declaration as to their fitness to undertake the placement. Any such checks or declarations must be accepted by the University as reasonable and then must be:

applicable to all students involved in such placements; and
related to the requirements of the duties or functions to be carried out in the placement; and
consistent with University policy and Commonwealth and State Government legislation relating to equal opportunity and discrimination.

A student who cannot demonstrate fitness to undertake the placement or who refuses to undertake a required check or make a self declaration may be refused placement.

Where there is a pre-existing medical or other condition such that the ability to practice may be impaired, the student will discuss the issues with the topic coordinator so that where possible reasonable accommodations, an access plan or a modified placement that will meet the learning outcomes of the topic can be arranged. The student may wish to discuss the issues with the Disability Liaison Officer in the first instance.

Faculties must establish procedures that should be followed in the case of a student who is refused placement, and that must address the following:

identification of the authority to determine that the student should be refused placement;
provisions for advising the student on the consequences for course completion and on any remedial action that can be taken by the student;
provisions for the student to seek a review of the decision to refuse placement, which address the issues of student representation, and the student's, the placement provider's and the faculty's rights and responsibilities; and
the possibility of an alternative placement.

Guidelines for Withdrawal of Students from Placement

Students in topics that require them to undertake a placement are subject to contractual agreements established between the organisation providing the placement and the University. The following provisions apply to situations involving unsafe or unsatisfactory student performance in such placements or unsatisfactory provision of placement by the placement provider.

A Topic Coordinator may withdraw a student from a placement, either for a specific period of time and subject to specific conditions or for the remainder of the duration of the placement, where:

1	the student is consistently unable after due instruction and guidance, to perform satisfactorily without an inappropriate or an unattainable degree of supervision from supervisory personnel with respect to:
	1.1	skills involving a client's comfort or safety;
	1.2	the performance of technical procedures already taught, demonstrated and practised in a prior clinical or practical situation;
2	the student performs in a manner detrimental to the professional experience of other students;
3	the student breaches the legal, ethical or professional codes of the organisation providing the placement or of the industry concerned;
4	the student demonstrates gross negligence in the performance of an assigned duty;
5	the placement provider is unable to maintain an appropriate placement experience for the student.

Where a Topic Coordinator withdraws a student for the remainder of the placement for reasons listed in 1 to 4 above, a fail result normally will be recorded in the topic. Where a student's placement is terminated for reasons of lack of appropriate support by the placement provider, no fail will be recorded and the student will be assisted to find an alternative placement to enable them to complete the placement topic.

The faculty must establish procedures that should be followed in the case of such withdrawal, and that must address the following:

identification of the authority to determine that the student should be withdrawn from the placement;
provisions for advising the student, which must include written advice on the nature of the problem with the student's placement, on the consequences for course completion of unsuccessful completion of the placement, and on any remedial action that can be taken by the student;
provisions for students to seek a review of the decision to withdraw them, which address the issues of student representation, and the student's, the placement provider's and the faculty's rights and responsibilities;
the possibility of relocation to an alternative placement, and associated procedures.