Academic Integrity

This website provides information and resources for students and staff on the topic of academic integrity.

Principles underpinning academic integrity

Academic integrity is essential to the foundation and ongoing viability of an academic community, including managers, researchers, teachers and students. It defines values held by those in the community and which serve to guide the community in its work. In particular, academic integrity involves a commitment to such fundamental values as honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility within all academic endeavours (Centre for Academic Integrity).

Honesty: Academic honesty underpins respect for, and the search for, knowledge and understanding. Academic staff are honest in their research and in their dealings with other staff and with students. Students are honest with themselves and with others, in their personal ambition, study and particularly in their involvement in the assessment process.

Trust: Trust follows from academic honesty. Society trusts an academic institution which is demonstrably truthful in its mission, its public work and how it deals with its employees and students. Staff trust the institution to support honest scholarly enterprise. Students trust their teachers to guide their learning and to uphold the values to which the institution aspires. Academic staff trust students to work honestly and with endeavour to achieve their personal goals.

Fairness: Everyone in an academic community can expect to be treated fairly. Fairness is expressed in the institution's standards, practices and procedures, and in all interactions between the institution, its staff and its students. Judgments about staff are fair and accountable. Assessment of students also is open, fair and accountable.

Respect: Respect comes from meeting high and honourable expectations. Society has respect for an academic institution that is seen to uphold high standards of conduct in learning, teaching and research. Respect among those in an academic community means interacting with civility and justice. Teaching and learning rely on active engagement and mutual respect - among teachers and learners. Respect for others means that we value their worth and their work. Respect for oneself comes from active and honest involvement in the academic or learning process.

Responsibility: Those in an academic community have the right to expect that the values of academic integrity and scholarship will be upheld. But with rights come responsibilities. Responsibility for academic integrity and scholarship thus rests with every member of the community; every member accepts and upholds the integrity and qualities of scholarship and learning.