Academic Integrity in Teaching and Learning
Upholding and promoting academic integrity at UBC.
Academic integrity is a commitment to upholding the UBC values of respect, integrity, and accountability in all academic endeavours.
All members of the UBC community have a shared responsibility to understand and uphold its values. Academic integrity is important for activities that produce new knowledge through scholarly activities including creative pursuits, writing, and speaking. It is also important for activities that require students to demonstrate their learning through assessments and assignments.
Information and resources are available for both students who must learn with integrity, and faculty who must teach with integrity. The culture of academic integrity can only be maintained when both ideals are realized.
A culture of academic integrity
Academic integrity is integrated into every course, and needs to be taught in the context of the disciplines.
It’s for everyone
Faculty, staff, and students act in their shared responsibility to embody the values of academic integrity.
Responses to academic integrity breaches acknowledge that students are learning and have a responsibility to uphold the standards of academic integrity.
Educative Approaches to Academic Integrity
There have been many recent developments around academic integrity at UBC, including updates to the academic misconduct regulation to introduce a diversionary process and integrity plans, a new academic integrity website, and the creation of an Academic Integrity Hub in the Office of the Provost and Vice-President Academic. At the heart of these initiatives, UBC’s aim is to support and promote an educative approach to academic integrity and academic misconduct.
Learning with Integrity
Students have a responsibility to understand academic integrity in their fields of study and to do their part to support a culture of academic integrity. Understanding misconceptions regarding academic integrity is a step towards embracing its values.
Learning collaboratively is effective when combined with clear expectations and documentation of individual contributions. Effective collaborative learning is built on the foundational principle of reciprocity where contributions are acknowledged in a respectful way.
Soliciting a third-party to produce academic work and materials on your behalf is known as contract cheating. This type of cheating, along with file-sharing, carries additional risks for students beyond being simple academic misconduct.
Teaching with Integrity
Faculty have a responsibility to work with students to promote a culture of academic integrity. This starts in the classroom by teaching academic integrity in their discipline and including relevant information in syllabi and coursework.
Citing and Acknowledging
All knowledge production builds on the work of others. When students produce writing or creative outputs, academic integrity is upheld if information is properly paraphrased and sources are properly attributed.
In areas of study where students demonstrate their learning through quizzes, tests or homework assignments, there are evidence-based recommendations for rewarding academic integrity in course and assessment design.