Integrity for Students

What does Academic Integrity look like at Waterloo?

As a student, academic integrity means making ethical decisions, asking questions, and following instructions - even when faced with difficult situations. All members of the University of Waterloo are expected to follow the six core values of integrity: honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility, and courage (ICAI, n.d.).

Students demonstrate honesty by:

  • following their instructor’s guidelines and expectations for assignments and tests
  • submitting original work and completing individual assessments independently

Students demonstrate trust by:

  • being dependable and reliable in their work, commitments and actions
  • following their instructor’s directions and completing work by the set deadline

Students show respect by:

  • consistently and accurately citing the work of others in their assignments
  • keeping academic materials and instructor’s intellectual property private (e.g., class slides, assignments, tests, etc.), and not sharing these without the instructor’s permission

Students demonstrate fairness by:

  • treating others equally without self-interest or prejudice
  • following the University’s rules and not trying to gain unfair advantages in assessments, mid-terms or tests (e.g., copying someone else’s answers, using their phone to look up information during an exam etc.)

Students demonstrate responsibility by:

  • completing their individual and group work to the best of their abilities and being accountable to themselves, their instructors, their classmates, and the University
  • Seeking help If they are struggling or are not sure of expectations

Students demonstrate courage by:

  • being brave and standing up for what is right, even in challenging situations. If they think someone has committed an academic offense or is violating a rule - they alert their instructor, Associate Dean, or a staff member

Moreover, academic integrity skills, like citing, paraphrasing, or summarizing, take practice, and students should ask for help along the way. The Office of Academic Integrity has a number of resources for students:

The above information is available as a handout in PDF format.