Academic issues, policies and accommodations

If you have any difficulties, academic or personal, during the term that prevent you from performing your normal academic duties, do not hesitate to contact Tanya Yoworski in E5-3106 for help. Note that it is essential that you immediately notify your undergraduate advisor and any course instructor involved if you are not able to write a mid-term or final exam due to illness or personal emergency. If a student fails to write examinations without notification, the student may be "Required to Withdraw From Engineering". 

Documented evidence of the reason for missing the exam, e.g., a doctor's note, indicating the reason for illness, dates of illness, etc., will be required as soon as possible. If you go to Health Services for an appointment, the doctor or nurse will provide you with a "University of Waterloo Verification of Illness Form". If you see another doctor such as your own family doctor, then you must print out a "University of Waterloo Verification of Illness Form" available from the Health Services Verification of Illness web page and ask your doctor to fill it out.

Accommodations due to an illness that has been documented with a Verification of Illness form are described in the Registrar's Accommodations due to Illness web page. Note that the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering policy on deferred final exams missed due to illness or other extenuating circumstances is to require the deferred exam be written as soon as possible after the student is able to return to normal academic duties. This policy is described in better detail here.

The Examinations and Promotions rules are used to determine the academic decision for each term and your progress through the Mechanical Engineering program. You are responsible for knowing these rules. To review the rules, please visit this section of the undergraduate calendar online under "Examinations and Promotions".

Some students may have difficulty coping with the workload and stress of the engineering program. Counselling Services are available to help. See the receptionist in the First Year Engineering office or your undergraduate advisor for more information about this service.

Study skills and other workshops tend to fill up fast, so register early!

Courses offered in the Faculty of Engineering place responsibilities on the Faculty of Engineering, the instructor and teaching team and all students. Many of these responsibilities are described at the first lecture or are captured in the policies of the university atSecretariat | University of Waterloo and the Faculty of Engineering Course Responsibilities on the web at Current Students | Course Responsibilities | Engineering UG Studies . There are two responsibilities that have been specified by the Senate of the University of Waterloo as requiring special mention. One relating to the responsibility of students with respect to plagiarism and academic discipline and one relating to the teaching team with respect to students with disabilities. These two responsibilities have been expressed in specific wording by the Senate and are listed below. All courses offered by the Faculty of Engineering subscribe to these specifications except as may be noted on the course syllabus's or during the first lecture.​

Students are expected to know what constitutes academic integrity, to avoid committing academic offences, and to take responsibility for their actions. Students who are unsure whether an action constitutes an offence, or who need help in learning how to avoid offences (eg., plagiarism, cheating) or about “rules” for group work/collaboration should seek guidance from the course professor, TA, academic advisor, or the Undergraduate Associate Dean. For information on categories of offences and types of penalties, students should refer to Policy #71, Student Academic Discipline . Students who believe that they have been wrongfully or unjustly penalized have the right to grieve; refer to Policy #70, Student Grievance . University Policy #71 defines academic offences to include plagiarism, copying and cheating as follows:

Plagiarism is defined as taking "intellectual property," such as words, drawings, photos, or artwork, etc., written or created by others, and passing it off as your own. When you submit a report or assignment with your name on it, it is assumed that you are the author of everything in the assignment except for those materials which are specifically identified as coming from other sources. Therefore, if you include sentences, photos, drawings or figures from other sources in a work report or lab report, the complete reference must be cited. This applies in particular to any material cut and pasted from the internet or any other electronic source.

Cheating includes "copying from another student's work or allowing another student to copy from one's own work, submitting another person's work as one's own, fabrication of data, consultation with any unauthorized person during an examination or test, and use of unauthorized aids."

Collaboration is encouraged among students. Discussion, debate and the collegial exchange of information is encouraged and is always helpful in the education process. Just make sure you avoid plagiarism and cheating.

The Office for Persons with Disabilities (OPD), recently re-named AccessAbility Services Office (Needles Hall, Room 1132), collaborates with all academic departments to arrange appropriate accommodations for students with disabilities without compromising the academic integrity of the curriculum. If you require academic accommodations to lessen the impact of your disability, please register with the AccessAbility Services Office at the beginning of each academic term.