Academic integrity policy

• Academic integrity means being responsible for the quality of your work. This means that your work truly shows your efforts and abilities. 

• Academic integrity means preparing your work honestly by carefully following all course assignment and test procedures and avoiding academic fraud (see below). 

• Academic integrity means respecting the intellectual community you are part of as a student by properly referencing the words, sentences, information, and ideas from other people and avoiding plagiarism (see below).

Academic fraud is “an act by a student that may result in a false academic evaluation of that student or of another student” (Regulation 14 - Academic Fraud). For the language programs offered by the Centre for Language Learning, here are some examples:

• submitting work prepared by someone else or for someone else;

• using work you have previously submitted for another course, without your teacher’s permission;

• submitting work that you have completed with the help of others even though your teacher has instructed you to complete the work on your own; 

• using editing software without your teacher’s permission;

• using online translation tools or sources without your teacher’s permission;

• falsifying or making up information or data in assignments or research papers;

• submitting work purchased or taken from the Internet;

• submitting an assignment without acknowledging all of the resources and tools that were used to complete the assignment;

• plagiarizing ideas or facts from others.

Plagiarism is a type of academic fraud.  It means using words, sentences, ideas, and facts from other people and presenting them as yours, by failing to quote or reference them correctly. Here are some examples:

• failing to place words or sentences you have taken from other authors in quotation marks; (“…”)

• copying and pasting information found on the Internet without providing a reference;

• translating texts without providing a reference for their sources and placing the translated text within quotation marks;

• not providing a reference for a paraphrase or a summary.

Students who commit academic fraud will face one or more of the sanctions below depending on the severity of the academic fraud committed.

1. a written warning;

2. requirement to redo the assignment;

3. a mark of zero for part of the work in question;

4. a mark of zero for the work in question;

5. a mark of zero for the work in question, with a final grade no higher than the passing grade for the instructor’s course work mark;

6. a non-satisfactory (NS) grade for the course.

In the absence of a student appeal, one or more of these sanctions will take effect immediately. 

In additions to facing the sanctions above, students who commit academic fraud will be required to meet with the Academic Services Coordinator of the Centre for Language Learning.

Academic fraud cases are taken very seriously.  Below are the steps involved. 

1. The instructor contacts the Academic Services Coordinator (Sharon Carrier) to inform the Centre for Language Learning of the suspected academic fraud case.  The Academic Services Coordinator confirms whether this is a first or a repeat violation by the student within the program.

2. The instructor contacts the student to better understand the reasons that led to fraud.  Based on this information, the instructor will determine the most appropriate sanction.

3. The instructor informs the student of the sanction, as well as of the right to appeal. The instructor also informs the Manager (Evan Lavoie) and the Academic Services Coordinator (Sharon Carrier) of the sanction that was determined.  The sanction is recorded in the student’s file within the Centre for Language Learning. 

1. Yes. Upon being informed of the sanction, a student can appeal. To appeal the sanction, the student must make a written request to the Academic Services Coordinator (Sharon Carrier) within five (5) working days of receiving the instructor’s decision.

2. After being contacted by a student requesting an appeal, the Centre for Language Learning will inform an OLBI inquiry committee that an academic fraud appeal has been made.  The inquiry committee will consist of two professors outside of the Centre for Language Learning but within the Official Languages and Bilingualism Institute.  The Centre for Language Learning will provide the committee with all relevant information and documentation related to the case.  The instructor(s) of the student will also be given the opportunity to speak with committee members about the case.   

3. The inquiry committee will contact the student.  The student will be asked to:

4. send in writing all information and documents related to the academic fraud case, and

5. meet with the committee to present his or her case.

The student can bring a person of his or her choice when appearing before the committee. A student who fails to respond to the committee within 5 working days or fails to appear before the committee at the identified time and place will lose their right to appeal. 

1. Once the student has been given the opportunity to present his or her case, within 5 working days the inquiry committee will present their decision, recommendations, and, if necessary, an appropriate sanction, through a report sent to the Manager of the Centre for Language Learning.

2. Within two (2) working days of receiving the inquiry committee’s report, the office of the Centre for Language Learning sends a copy of the report to the student and informs the student of the final decision and the sanction, if imposed.  Note that the decision made by OLBI’s Inquiry Committee after the appeal is final.