What is malpractice
Malpractice is any action that breaks our regulations and potentially threatens the integrity of our exams and certificates. Malpractice can happen before, during or after timetabled exams or other assessments.
Reporting suspected malpractice
Cambridge Centres
If you are a registered Cambridge International Centre, find out more about how to report candidate or centre staff malpractice.
Making an allegation
If you believe you have witnessed or are aware of malpractice in our exams or assessments, we encourage you to report your concerns. In the first instance you should report your concerns to the Head of Centre or Senior Management Team at the centre, ideally in writing. The Head of Centre is required to report all suspected malpractice to us immediately.
If you do not feel you can report malpractice to the Head of Centre or Senior Management Team because you think they could be involved or you think you could be victimised as a result, you can contact us directly.
Confidentiality
The details and outcome of any investigation are confidential between us and our registered centres. Therefore, we will not discuss what action has been taken; to do so would be to reveal privileged information which is often subject to the Data Protection Act.
We take all allegations of malpractice seriously and understand that you may want to remain anonymous. We will treat any information sensitively and confidentially and we recognise that in some cases when details of your allegation are shared with relevant people, it may be possible for them to work out your identity. We aim to limit this wherever possible.
When reporting malpractice, you should be aware that any information supplied anonymously cannot be used as evidence. However, such information can form the basis of, or give probable cause for, an investigation. In order to support any potential investigation, it is better if you supply all the information you have at one time, rather than add information later.
What we need to know
For us to be able to effectively investigate reports of malpractice, we need as much detailed and specific information as possible. This should include but is not limited to the following:
- the name of the school
- the nature of the malpractice
- the names of all the people involved in or who are aware of the malpractice
- the names of anyone who benefitted from the malpractice
- whether you witnessed the malpractice yourself, or the names of anyone who may have witnessed the malpractice
- any information or evidence you have to support your allegation
Without detailed and specific information or evidence, it can be difficult to review and investigate the concerns being raised.
How to contact us
If you have information about malpractice, you can contact our Compliance team by email. Please include 'Allegation' in the subject line.
UK
Note: For the UK this policy includes any “whistle blower” disclosure of malpractice or wrongdoing in centres by a member of staff, learner or parent/guardian, in accordance with Ofqual’s whistle blowing policy, May 2014.
If you work at a Centre in the UK you have the benefit of the Public Interest Disclosure Act and should consider whether you wish to make the disclosure direct to Ofqual to benefit from the protection of the Act.
