Student Academic Integrity Resources: What Happens After a Violation?

Level 1 violations may be minor in nature and affect a small portion of the assessment work in question.

Examples (not intended to be an exhaustive list):

• Failure to acknowledge working with another student (third party), unless the instructor explicitly authorizes such work
• Failure to attempt to cite or give proper acknowledgement in a small/minor portion of the assignment

Mandatory Sanctions 

1. Educational Sanction (listed below), AND
2. at least one of the following sanctions:
   • Resubmission of the original assessment piece.
   • Submission of a new assessment piece
   • A portion of assessment work receives a grade of “0”
   • A penalty sanctioned at the discretion of faculty that results in a reduced overall grade
   • Or, another sanction as deemed appropriate by the faculty.

Level 2 violations are of a more serious or extensive nature than the ones described in Level 1 or are those that affect a larger or more significant portion of the assessment. 

Examples (not intended to be an exhaustive list):

• Recognizing for the first time that a student has breached academic integrity on more than one occasion but has not been previously reported.
• More than one form of violation within one assignment.
• Plagiarizing portions of a written assignment or project.
• Facilitating copying during an exam or in the completion of work.
• Submitting the same work, or major portions thereof, to satisfy the requirements of more than one course without permission from the instructor.
• Cheating during a test, exam or other types of academic assessment (this could include using prohibited materials such as books, notes, calculators, or other electronic devices).
• Receiving assistance from others (e.g. research, statistical, computer programming, field data collection help, or technical art/design production help) that constitutes an essential element in the undertaking without acknowledging such assistance in a paper, examination, or project.
• Repeat violation at a Level 1, where education sanctions have been applied, may be considered to raise the violation to a Level 2.

Mandatory Sanctions

1. Educational Sanction (listed below), AND
2. A grade of zero (0) on the assignment.

Optional Sanctions

Faculty may select additional sanctions. Examples of these optional sanctions are (but are not limited to):

• Submission of a new assessment piece for full or partial grade
• Presentation to Faculty on Academic Integrity for bonus marks

Level 3 violations affect a sizable portion of the assessment work, involve premeditation, and/or students who have repeated Level 1 and Level 2 violations. 

Examples (not intended to be an exhaustive list):

• Removing posted or reserve material, preventing other students from having access to materials.
• Falsification of data or inventing and/or deliberately altering material (e.g. citing a source that does not exist).
• Engaging in contract cheating through the selling or purchasing of assessments for submission for grades.
• Collaborating before an exam to develop methods of exchanging information and implementation thereof.
• Use or distribution of material which has been acquired through unauthorized means.
• repeat violations at Level 1 or Level 2, where education sanctions have been applied, may be considered to raised the violation to a Level 3.

Mandatory Sanctions

1. Educational Sanction (listed below), AND
2. A grade of zero (0) for the course.

Level 4 violations are reserved for the most serious breaches of academic integrity and/or incidents preceded by repeated violations at all previous levels.

Examples (not intended to be an exhaustive list):

• Providing another student with login information in an attempt to have that person complete the assessment work (false impersonation).
• Infractions of academic integrity resembling criminal activity (e.g. forging a grade form, stealing an examination, buying an exam, falsifying a transcript).
• False impersonation in an exam.
• Sabotaging another student’s work through actions designed to prevent the student from successfully completing an assignment.
• Repeat violations at Level 3, where educational sanctions have been applied, may be considered to raised the violation to a Level 4.

Mandatory Sanctions

1. Educational Sanction (listed below), AND
2. Suspension from the College for a minimum of one semester or regular program delivery. Faculty may choose Option ‘a’ or ‘b’:
   a. One to Three Semesters: Must be approved by the Dean of the applicable School.
   b. Three or More Semesters: Must be approved by the Dean in consultation with the Vice-President Academic.