Academic Integrity and the Role of the Instructor

[Place this U of T Academic Integrity Statement on the cover page of quizzes, exams and assignments]:

The following is what I expect of students in this course for your own learning and benefit of all the students in this course.

As a student (insert name) in this course, I am committed:

• To sustain my effort and engagement for the learning in this course.
• To ask questions about the purpose of or criteria for an assessment if I am uncertain.
• To ask questions about the rules surrounding the assessment if I am uncertain.
• To follow the rules for the assessment, including under conditions of no supervision.
• To treat my personal learning as valuable it its own right.

I submit this assessment, acknowledging the above commitments and that I have followed the rules outlined by my instructor and consistent with the Code of Behaviour on Academic Matters.

(student name/student number/date)

Like the statement adapted from the University of Saskatchewan, this statement asks the student to confirm that they have followed academic integrity policy. In this particular example, the student is asked to do this twice; once at the start of the test and again at the end.

For the beginning of the assessment:
We at U of T want you to feel proud of what you accomplish as students. Please respect all of the hard work you’ve done this year as you complete the following assessment of your learning by making sure that the work you do here is your own. We don’t expect you to score perfectly on this assessment and there will be some things that you may not know. Using an unauthorized resource or asking someone else for the answer robs you of the chance later to feel proud of how well you did because you’ll know that it wasn’t really your work that got you there. Success in university isn’t about getting a certain mark, it’s about becoming the very best person you can by enriching yourself with knowledge, strengthening yourself with skills, and building a healthy self-esteem based on how much you’ve grown and achieved. No one assessment captures that but your conscience will stay with you forever. Make yourself and your loved ones proud of the student that you are by conducting yourself honestly on this assessment.

I, [Please type full first name, last name, and any initials], University of Toronto student number [Please enter full student number], pledge to honour myself and my community by assuring that the work I do on this assessment fully represents my own knowledge and ideas. I will feel proud of my work here when I am done because I know that it was my own and only mine.

For the end of the assessment:
Congratulations—you’ve made it to the end of your assessment for this course! We hope that you feel proud of the work that you did here because you know that it was your own and no one else’s. Please know that all suspected cases of academic dishonesty will be investigated following the procedures outlined in the Code of Behaviour on Academic Matters. If you have violated that Code, admitting it now will significantly reduce any penalty you incur if it’s discovered by your instructor later. Admitting your mistakes is as much a matter of pride as never making them from the beginning. Thus, please check the appropriate statement below:

__ I confirm that the work I’ve done here is my own and no one else’s, in line with the principles of scholarship and the University of Toronto’s Code of Behaviour
__ I regret that I violated the Code of Behaviour on this assessment and would like to admit that now so that I can take responsibility for my mistake

I, [Please type full first name, last name, and any initials], University of Toronto student number [Please enter full student number], confirm that my response here is an accurate and true representation of my behaviour, knowing that by signing this declaration untruthfully I will incur an even greater penalty if it is later discovered that I have cheated or behaved dishonestly on this assessment.