Code of discipline for students

Approved by the protocol No.04 of the extraordinary meeting dated 29.01.2015 of the Academic Board.

I. General introduction  

1.1. “Code of discipline for students of Azerbaijan University” (hereinafter referred to as “Regulations”) are a set of rules that defines discipline measures and the procedure of its application against the students who act in a way that is prohibited or  not complies with the academic dignity and morality.

1.2. These regulations have been made in accord with the Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan “On education” and the articles of association of the University.

1.3. These regulations are applied to every single student of the Azerbaijan University. 

1.4. The following principles shall be deemed principal when these rules are applied:

1.4.1. Principle of equality: the students who break the code of discipline shall be equally subject to disciplinary proceedings regardless of their race, nationality, religion, language, gender, origin, financial status, views and faith, and belonging to any political parties, trade unions and other public unions.

1.4.2. Principle of justice: the disciplinary actions applied to the student who break code of discipline shall be fair, which means they shall correspond to the nature and public insecurity level of the violation.

1.4.3. Principle of humanism: the disciplinary action against a student who violated disciplinary rules cannot be used to humiliate human dignity or morality.  

II. General regulations on conduct

2.1. Every student of the university must comply with the following rules: 

2.1.1. Follow the articles of association, regulations of the university, rector’s orders, the decisions of the Academic Board and other rules;

2.1.2. Protect the property of the university and inform the responsible officials of the university of any violations and irregularities;

2.1.3. Act in a way that does not humiliate the student’s image or is not prohibited, support the compliance with order and cleanliness at university, not interfere with the normal course of the lesson process, be careful and respect their colleagues and university staff; 

2.1.4. Not to anything that contradicts the reputation and moral values of the university;

2.1.5. Respect and protect our national values.

III. Disciplinary actions and the rules of their application

3.1. Where a student violates disciplianry rules, one of the following disciplinary measures can be used against him:

3.1.1. Reprimand;

3.1.2. Severe reprimand;

3.1.3. Expulsion from university (for a semester or two or for longer period of time); 

3.2. A more severe disciplinary action may be taken against the student if he repeatedly violates the rules.

IV. Reprimand

4.1. Reprimand – a written statement of violations to the studens who breaj the disciplinary rules by their inappropriate acts and behaviour. Reprimand shall be applied in the following cases:

4.1.1. to be rude and disrespectful to others, to shout, sing or listen to music in a way that disturbs or irritates others, to make noise or to pollute the environment;

4.1.2. hang unauthorized announcements and posters in the university building;

4.1.3. tear out, change or spoil any advertisements hung by the university;

4.1.4. to breach the normal course of work with his actions and behavior and use mobile phones and other technological tools during lessons;

4.1.5. to enter exam room before handing his mobile phone and other technological tools to the examiner;

4.1.6. to write, make marks and draw on or spoil in any way the walls and property of the university building;

4.1.7. to interfere with organization of different events or to make actinons that may harm the event’s program;

4.1.8. to be engaged in political and religious propoganda in the university;

4.1.9. to avoid or attempt to disrupt the disciplinary proceedings in any way;

4.1.10. to enable someone to use his student card or any other document the university submits;

4.1.11. to protest alone or in concert with the other students against the decisions made by teachers or management or to propogandize or in this respect among students against those staff or to make an attempt to do such actions;

4.1.12. to make an attempt to create groups and to discriminate against religion, nationality, religion and faith;

4.1.13. to draw writings or stick pictures or emblems of ideological and political nature onto objects, door, windor, wall other other places;

4.1.14. to act for and against any political party at university or any other related bode and to propogandize in this respect;

4.1.15. to act in a way in or outside the university alone or in groups that may damage the reputation of the university;

4.1.16. to organize or take part in various events at university or any other related bodies without the permission of the authorized officials;

4.1.17. to present himself as an authorized official unless he is not entitled to represent the university or its any related body, to make statements or to take part in meetings or events that may damage the reputation of the university;

4.1.18. to enter prohibited places in the building or territory of the university;

4.1.19. to be member of the organizations that act illegally or to act in favor of such organizations;

4.1.20. to smoke in the prohibited places at university;

4.1.21. to copy from somebody or to enable someone to copy;  

4.1.22. when a student uses uses another authori’s works (plagiarism) in his course or graduation papers.

V. Severe reprimand

5.1. severe reprimand is a written statement to warn a student that more severe punishments shall be applied in the case if any faults are revealed in his acts and behavior or if he repeats the disciplinary action. Severe reprimand shall be applied in the following cases:

5.1.1. the cases specified by the article 5.1 of these regulations are repeated;

5.1.2. when the teachers and colleagues of the university are threatened;

5.1.3. when they drink alcoholic drinks in the university building.

VI. Expulsion from university (for a semester or two or for longer period of time)

6.1. Expulsion from university – a written statement upon the order of an authorized official on expulsion of the student from university for a semester or two or for much longer period of time or his deprival of his rights to higher education at that university.  Students will be expelled from university for 1 semester or 2 or for much longer period at following cases:

6.1.1. the student received a severe reprimand from university violates regulations again;

6.1.2. to offend the dignity and morality and personality of the students or teacher staff of the university severely;

6.1.3. to hold events, meetings, meetings and demonstrations or to propogandize that may deliberately or in a planned manner may damage the reputation ofo the University;

6.1.4. To do acts of criminal nature;

6.1.5. to use force against university staff or students;

6.1.6. to falsify signature in any other formal document the university owns or submitted to university;

6.1.7. to make changes or cause others to do changes to the university documents;

6.1.8. to interfere with the information system of the university, to get information in this way, to make changes to the information, to damage the normal activity of the system, to cause others to do so and try such other acts;

6.1.9. to take exam instead of another student; 

6.1.10. to enable another student deliberately take exam on his behalf;

6.1.11. to damage or plunder the property of the university by guilty actions.

VII. Rule of application of discipline rules

7.1. A written statement shall be received from the student before applying disciplinary actions regarding the violation of disciplinary regulations;

7.2. Regardless of written statement of student, the violation that may lead to disciplinary responsibility shall be investigated maximum for 3 days, and 5 days in special cases. If needed, such period can be increased. The investigation shall be conducted by the instruction of rector and by a commission established for this purpose.

7.3. All students and employees of the university shall submit all information and documents to the person or commission who conducts investigation.

7.4. Disciplinary action can be applied during 1 (one) month after the day violations are revealed.

7.5. The student who is involved in investigation may not change his faculty and specialty at university or cannot be transferred to any other higher educational institution.

7.6. Upon the completion of the investigation, commission shall make a report and present written suggestions to the dean on application of any disciplinary action against the student. The faculty dean shall present a relevant presentation to rector in this respect. 

7.7. Disciplinary action shall be implemented by the written order (decree or decision) of an official. The student shall be introduced the order (decree or order) during 3 business days. The rector’s orders shall be hung on advetisement boards of all faculties.

7.8. In the decrees and orders it is not allowed to use the expressions that humiliate the dignity and morality of students. Sərəncam və əmrlərdə tələbənin şərəf və ləyaqətini alçaldan ifadələrin işlədilməsi yolverilməzdir.

7.9. The information on the disciplinary action against the student shall be stated in the personal records and transcript.

VIII. The officials who are entitled to make decision on the disciplinary action

8.1. The decision regarding reprimand, severe reprimand and expulsion from university for 1 semester or two or for longer period of time, shall be made by the rector upon presentation made by the concerning faculty dean and commission. 

IX. The regulations of appealing against the disciplinary action

9.1. The student may appeal against the disciplinary action during 3 days after the student is informed of the official order.

9.2. The appeal shall be directly addressed to the rector:

9.3. Commission of Appeal shall be established by rector regarding the appeals. This commission shall investigate the case during 5 business days. The persons who took part in the preliminary investigation cannot be the member of the Commission of Appeal.

9.4. The Commission of Appeal shall investigate the appeal and make suggestions on keeping validity, cancelling or making changes thereto.

9.5. The rector shall make the final decision on the basis of the recommendations of the Commission of Appeal, and this decision shall be final and obligatory.

9.6. If the student is involved in disciplinary proceedings during 1 year after the disciplinary action, he shall be deemed not absolutely have been involvedin the disciplinary proeedings.

9.7. The disciplinary action may be taken 6 months ahead of time for better performance and academic indicators.

[1]  Plagiarism is an act or instance of using or closely imitating the language and thoughts of another author without authorization and the representation of that author's work as one's own, as by not crediting the original auth