A former senior law lecturer at the University of Canberra accused of sex offences against five students would commit the crimes during one-on-one meetings about academic misconduct, the ACT Supreme Court has heard.

Arthur Marshall Hoyle has pleaded not guilty to eight charges related to alleged acts of indecency, and two charges of rape.

Hoyle was suspended from the university in April 2015 when the allegations were raised by the students in question.

At the opening of his trial today, prosecutor Trent Hickey told the jury Hoyle identified several international students as part of a staff inquiry into the use of an essay purchasing program.

Each of the alleged victims had been called into a meeting with Hoyle, where he allegedly told them he could make the problem go away.

Mr Hickey said the prosecution intended to show Hoyle had a tendency to seek sexual gratification during the meetings, and that he used threats about their essays during the incidents.

But Hoyle's lawyer Liesl Chapman said her client denied the accusations against him, saying the allegations emerged in the context of the students being investigated for academic misconduct.

She said he was looking into possible plagiarism, which was an issue in universities at the time, with a special program used to test essays to see if there was material copied from elsewhere.

"There was nothing sinister in arranging these meetings on the part of Mr Hoyle," she said.

"The credibility of these five students … is very much in issue."

The trial is expected to run for more than two weeks.