All students must adhere to the Academic Integrity policy regardless of the date in which they began their studies at Redeemer.

Policy on Academic Integrity

Redeemer University affirms that all members of the university community are obliged to maintain the highest standards of academic integrity. All students, staff, faculty, and administrators at Redeemer University are responsible for creating and maintaining an environment where academic integrity flourishes in all areas of academic life, including instruction, learning, research, and administration. This is an integral part of our mandate to perform scholarly work under the Lordship of Jesus Christ and to serve Him.

Specifically, students must take responsibility for their own academic work, adhering to integrity standards for themselves but also encouraging and cultivating a culture of integrity among their classmates. Students are responsible for being familiar with and avoiding the academic-integrity violations described below.

The faculty, staff, and administration of Redeemer University are responsible, in particular, for encouraging students to be mindful of the need for integrity in instruction, learning, and research, and to set standards for academic work by which students must abide. It is the responsibility of the faculty and administration of Redeemer University to ensure that expectations with respect to academic integrity are clearly communicated to students. Some departments and instructors may have specific rules designed to maintain academic integrity; if so, these are to be clearly communicated to students.

The faculty, staff, and administration of Redeemer University believe that breaches of academic integrity significantly undermine the university’s ability to fairly evaluate students and, as such, consider breaches of academic integrity to be unacceptable and counter to the learning objectives of the university.

Types of Academic Violations:

  • Cheating on any kind of test. Cheating involves using, or attempting to use, unauthorized materials during a quiz, test, or examination. This includes looking at the work of students near you during testing.
  • Altering a returned assignment and then asking that it be re-graded. If you receive an assignment back, alter the work so that it is different than what you submitted, and then ask the instructor to check the grading so that you can get a better grade, doing so is a violation.
  • Plagiarizing. Plagiarism is the submission of material that has been, entirely or in part, copied from, stolen from, purchased from, written by, created by, designed by, or produced by another person(s) without proper acknowledgement. When students directly quote or use material from a particular source, or when they use material indirectly (i.e. they are expressing in their own words a concept, idea, or interpretation that they have obtained from another source), they are required to provide a reference or footnote to give credit to the original source of the material. Failure to do so constitutes plagiarism, as does neglecting to use quotation marks around direct quotations, even if a citation is provided. The following points further clarify the issue:
  • The offense could stem from a deliberate attempt to deceive, which is particularly serious, or from careless scholarship, which is less serious, but still plagiarism.
  • Plagiarism applies not only to written texts but also to images, videos, music, and any other multimedia elements used without properly crediting the source.
  • Copying and submitting a classmate’s homework or homework completed by a student who took the course before also constitutes plagiarism.
  • Self-Plagiarizing. Especially in your major, you will likely have the opportunity to revisit certain topics, analytical approaches, and/or conceptual frameworks. Doing so is acceptable. However, if you submit in a course an assignment (in whole or part) that you had previously submitted for marks in an earlier course, this constitutes self-plagiarism. You may submit such work only if the instructor in the second course agrees and deems the assignment acceptable for credit in the course.
  • Sharing confidential or restricted assignment material. This violation refers to obtaining, distributing, and/or receiving copies of a quiz, test, or examination before the quiz, test, or examination is to be written, without the consent of the instructor. Likewise, it refers to releasing information about the content of a quiz, test, or examination, in the case where one is permitted to write it before the rest of the class.
  • Lying to gain advantage. This refers to providing false information in order to obtain alternate quiz, test, or examination dates or an extension of deadlines.
  • Helping another student cheat. Whether you are in the same course as the student or outside the course, this violation is more formally known as aiding and abetting another student’s misconduct. This violation includes the following:
  • allowing your quiz, test, examination, assignment, computer program, artwork, etc. to be copied.
  • offering your services to write or rewrite academic material to be submitted under the name of another student.
  • impersonating another student at a quiz, test, or examination.
  • forging the signature of another student on attendance sheets.
  • Damaging or interfering with another student’s work. This violation involves tampering with another student’s work or preventing another student from completing an assignment or studying for a quiz, test, or examination.
  • Providing false information or documents. This violation refers to the following:
    • Providing false information for the purpose of gaining admission to Redeemer University, gaining transfer credits, etc.
    • Falsifying, misrepresenting, or forging an academic record, letter of reference, or any official university document.

Record-Keeping about Academic-Integrity Violations

No matter what offense is committed, a note describing the offense will be placed in the student’s file by the Registrar. All official records pertaining to academic-integrity cases will be sealed and kept in the Registrar’s Office until the student has graduated or has been away from Redeemer for one year, at which time, all official records, including the note(s) placed in the student’s file by the Registrar, will be destroyed. Sealed documents are available only to the Registrar and the Chair of the Academic Standards Committee.

If a student is dismissed from the university as a result of a breach of academic integrity, a notation to this effect (“Dismissal: Academic Integrity Violation”) will appear on the student’s transcript, and remain there for two years after the dismissal.

The Procedure for Addressing Violations:

If the instructor suspects that a breach of academic integrity has occurred, the following process will be followed:

  • The instructor will meet with the student to discuss the charge and will then refer the case to the appropriate faculty adjudicator.
  • The faculty adjudicator will determine whether a breach of academic integrity has occurred. In making this determination, the faculty adjudicator may obtain information from any person involved.
  • If the faculty adjudicator determines that a breach of academic integrity has not occurred, the matter is dropped and any documentation pertaining to the incident is destroyed.
  • If the faculty adjudicator determines that a breach of academic integrity has occurred, he or she will notify the Chair of the Academic Standards Committee in writing, informing him or her of the nature of the charge against the student and recommending an appropriate penalty for the situation (i.e., the standard penalty or a different penalty).
  • The Chair of the Academic Standards Committee will then determine, following consultation with the Registrar, whether this is the student’s first, second, or third offense. Given the information from the adjudicator and the Registrar, the Chair will then assign an appropriate penalty.
  • The Chair of the Academic Standards Committee will communicate the final decision and the penalty to the student and the instructor.
  • The instructor will notify the Chair of the Academic Standards Committee and the Registrar that the penalty has been assigned.

Throughout the process, the instructor, student, adjudicator, registrar, and Academic Standards Committee will maintain the strictest confidentiality about the case by communicating in person and through printed, properly sealed documents, not through email or other electronic means.

Penalties, Procedures, and Appeals for a First Offense

The standard penalty for a first offense will be a “0” on the quiz, test, examination, lab report, class assignment, etc.; however, the adjudicator may recommend a greater or a lesser penalty based on the circumstances of the case. If the student believes that the adjudicator’s decision is in error, the student has the right to appeal that decision. The student must indicate, in writing to the Chair of the Academic Standards Committee, his or her intention to appeal within ten business days of being notified by the Chair of the right to appeal, or the right to appeal is forfeited. The student’s appeal must be directed to the decision itself, not to the penalty applied, and the appeal must provide sufficient grounds for the appeal to go forward. If the Chair determines that grounds are sufficient, he or she will select another faculty member, normally from a department other than the instructor’s, to review the appeal and make a decision. This faculty member’s decision is considered final.

Penalties, Procedures, and Appeals for a Second Offense (in the same course or another course)

Regardless of what penalty was assigned the student for a first offense, the standard penalty for a second offense will be an “F” in the course; however, the adjudicator may recommend a greater or lesser penalty based on the circumstances of the case. The student has the right to appeal the decisions and actions to the Academic Standards Committee, whose decision is final. (If the instructor involved serves on the Academic Standards Committee, the Vice President, Academic will appoint another faculty member to take his/her place.) The student must indicate, in writing, his or her intention to appeal to the Chair of the Academic Standards Committee within ten business days of being notified by the Chair of the right to appeal, or the right to appeal is forfeited. The appeal must provide a rationale that speaks to the adjudicator’s decision (not the penalty assigned), or the appeal may be dismissed by the Chair of the Academic Standards Committee. Any grade of “F” that appears on a student’s transcript as a result of a breach of academic integrity will not have any special notation after it.

Penalties, Procedures, and Appeals for a Third Offense

The student will be dismissed from the university. The student has the right to appeal the decisions and actions to the Vice President, Academic, who will convene the Academic and Discipline Appeals Committee, whose decision is final. (If the instructor involved serves on the Academic and Discipline Appeals Committee, the Vice President, Academic will appoint another faculty member to take his/her place.) The student must indicate, in writing, his or her intention to appeal to the Vice President, Academic within ten business days of being notified by the Chair of the Academic Standards Committee of the right to appeal, or the right to appeal is forfeited.