COP – Conflict of Interest – Academic

Policy Number: 3349-AC-502
Effective Date: 11/01/2025
Updated: —
Reviewed: —
Responsible Department: College of Pharmacy, Office of Education
Approval Authority: Dean, College of Pharmacy

A. Purpose

The purpose of this Policy is to establish guidelines regarding conflicts of interest for assessment and promotion of students. This Policy is intended to remove, as much as possible, bias in assessment of a student’s performance, assigning a student’s grade or in decisions of student promotion.

B. Scope

This Policy applies to credit-bearing courses in the College of Pharmacy (COP) curriculum, and to the Committee on Academic and Professional Progress. This policy does not apply to co-curricular activities at any level, student independent study effort or student employment.

C. Definitions

1. “Committee on Academic and Professional Progress” (CAPP) refers to the committee that evaluates students’ academic performance, assesses professional readiness for continued studies and determines appropriateness of curricular leave. (NEOMED Appendix G, College of Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy Standing Committees)
2. “Conflict of Interest” refers to the ability of a faculty member to improperly influence a decision about a student due to a preexisting relationship between the faculty member and the
3. “Course Director” refers to the appointed faculty member who is responsible for the overall design, conduct, student assessment within and evaluation of a credit-bearing
4. “Credit-bearing Course” refers to a course offered by the College of Pharmacy in which a student is enrolled, the course appears on the student’s official transcript with either contact hours or credit-bearing acknowledgment, and a grade is
5. “Faculty” refers to any instructor who is responsible for assignment of a course grade or a major component thereof to a student, or a person responsible for contributing to a promotion decision regarding a
6. “Clinical Site” refers to Instructional sites not located on the NEOMED campus where students are engaged in curricular experiences of a clinical nature.

D. Policy Statement

1. This policy applies to credit-bearing courses within the COP curriculum. This policy does not apply to courses in which the principle means of assessment is a multiple-choice examination for which cut lines for grading are predetermined or assigned using a distribution of scores in which individual students are anonymous. This policy is applicable to Course Directors, those who contribute substantially to a course grade, and those who are members of CAPP.
2. A Conflict of Interest is deemed to exist when Faculty has a close personal or professional relationship with a student.
   1. A familial or close personal relationship includes, but is not limited to blood relatives (ex., parents, grandparents, siblings, cousins) and others with whom there is a familial or close personal or professional relationship (ex., step-parents, in-laws, fiancé, godparents, mentor, work together).
   2. In the case of CAPP, a Conflict of Interest exists when a course director has assigned, or contributed in a significant way to, a failing grade to a student in a course to which this policy applies or is the referral source for a professionalism concern.
3. This Policy is designed to remove, as much as possible, bias in assessment of a student, assigning a grade to a student, or making a promotion decision regarding a The goal is to avoid Conflicts of Interest to the extent possible by not assigning students to Faculty with a Conflict of Interest.
4. Faculty responsibilities:
   1. Members of CAPP must recuse themselves from discussions concerning and decisions about students for whom they are the Course Director or have contributed in a substantial way to a Course Grade of fail if the grade was assigned in a manner that was not If the Course Grade is based only on the performance of multiple-choice assessments, the Course Director does not need to recuse themselves.
5. Student responsibilities:
   1. Students who have been assigned to an introductory pharmacy practice experience (IPPE) or advanced pharmacy practice experience (APPE) in which they would be evaluated by a member of the Faculty or staff with whom they have a close personal relationship with, should report the real, perceived, or potential Conflict of Interest using the disclosure form (Attachment 2) at the start of an academic year or as soon as they receive the assignment so that there will be no involvement of said Faculty/staff in the academic evaluation or promotion of the
   2. Students will be made aware of the need to disclose Conflicts of Interest in orientations and via the NEOMED
   3. Disclosure of such relationships must be prior to the start of a graded experience.
   4. Should the student fail to disclose the relationship until the graded experience has begun, and it is discovered, the Course Director will either move the student to avoid the Conflict or reassign the supervision to minimize its impact. Inability to complete a required experience related to student non-disclosure of a Conflict of Interest may result in failure to meet graduation requirements on time.
   5. Failure to disclose a potential Conflict of Interest prior to the start of a graded experience is a conduct concern that will be reported.

Download the Policy

Download Attachment 1

Download Attachment 2