Academic integrity

In order to maintain a culture of academic integrity, members of the University of Waterloo community are expected to promote honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility.

The Office of Academic Integrity’s website contains detailed information on University of Waterloo policies for students and faculty. This site explains why Academic Integrity is important and how students can avoid academic misconduct. It also identifies resources available on campus for students and faculty to help achieve academic integrity in--and out--of the classroom.

The University of Waterloo recognizes that its graduate students come from a variety of cultural and educational backgrounds, and that expectations about academic integrity can differ from one institution to another. To satisfy this need for consistency across graduate programs and to inform and support our graduate students, the University of Waterloo has created the Graduate Academic Integrity Module (Graduate AIM). The Graduate AIM is an online course that all new graduate students are required to take through Waterloo LEARN. Students must read the information about academic integrity and then receive a mark of at least 75% on an online quiz. The quiz must be successfully completed within the first 8 weeks of the term.

Turnitin®

The University licenses the text matching software (Turnitin®) that may be used to screen student assignments. The following text must appear in all course outlines:

Turnitin.com: Text matching software (Turnitin®) may be used to screen assignments in this course. Turnitin® is used to verify that all materials and sources in assignments are documented. Students’ submissions are stored on a U.S. server, therefore students must be given an alternative (e.g., scaffolded assignment or annotated bibliography), if they are concerned about their privacy and/or security. Students will be given due notice, in the first week of the term and/or at the time assignment details are provided, about arrangements and alternatives for the use of Turnitin® in this course.

It is responsibility of the student to notify the instructor if they, in the first week of term or at the time assignment details are provided, wish to submit the alternate assignment.