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University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada, R3T 2N2
The University of Manitoba takes academic integrity seriously. As a member of the International Centre for Academic Integrity, the University defines academic integrity as a commitment to six fundamental values: honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility and courage. Working with academic integrity demonstrates credibility and respect for good academic practices, while upholding the value of a UM degree.
Working with academic integrity demonstrates credibility and respect for good academic practices while upholding the value of a UM degree. Every student has an obligation to educate themselves about the policies at UM that govern academic integrity such as the Student Discipline Bylaw and the Student Academic Misconduct Procedure. Violations of these policies may result in a disciplinary investigation and the imposition of significant disciplinary actions.
For each course, students will receive a course outline, or syllabus, that will include information about Academic Integrity policies at UM. Students are expected to know these policies. Ignorance of these policies or saying “I didn’t know” is not a reasonable excuse. If students are ever unsure about whether a situation constitutes academic misconduct, they must ask their instructors questions about what is and is not allowed in their course.
A finding of academic misconduct can result in serious negative consequences for students, including:
These consequences can affect graduation, co-op placements, and study permits.
The University of Manitoba takes academic integrity seriously and students must familiarize themselves with UM expectations about the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) tools and technologies. AI and GenAI tools have implications for education and the completion of course work.
UM’s Artificial Intelligence Guiding Principles highlight several considerations for UM Faculty, students, and staff when it comes to ethically using AI tools.
You can learn more about the use of AI at UM, including UM’s AI guiding principles on the Artificial Intelligence page. You can also learn more about AI through the UM-Student AI course, available on UM Learn.
AI is the ability of digital computers to perform tasks commonly associated with intelligent beings.
GenAI refers to the type of machine learning model that is being used. Generative models can create new content by learning from training data and generating new outputs based on this training data. These are tools that generate text, video or images based on questions, phrases, or keywords that you provide.
In both contexts, these new technologies are capable of learning from experience, reasoning, understanding language, recognizing patterns, and problem solving.
Artificial intelligence could fall into any of the following types of tools:
This list is not exhaustive, see the Generative AI Product Tracker here.
Authorized use of Artificial Intelligence and Generative AI (GenAI) tools depends on your program of study, the course you are in, and the assignment you are working on. Students may only use AI and GenAI tools if permission has been explicitly stated by their instructor—students are encouraged to check their syllabus and to ask questions to confirm what is allowed in their course.
If you are allowed to use GenAI tools in your course, your instructor will provide specific guidance on how these tools are expected to be used.
Expectations vary from course to course. Don’t assume that just because you are allowed to use GenAI tools in one course means you’re allowed to use them in all of your courses. How one instructor allows you to use these tools might be different from many instructors you encounter in your studies. It is your responsibility to remain informed.
Graduate students should only use Generative AI tools if permitted by their course instructor, their program’s supplemental regulations, and their advisor or supervisory committee. Expectations vary across graduate programs so don’t make assumptions. Graduate students should always review their syllabus, check their program’s Supplemental Regulations, and confirm with their advisor before using any AI tool.
Student Accessibility Services (SAS) can answer your questions about accommodations and GenAI tools.
Yes, if you are using AI or GenAI for an assignment you must cite the tool you’ve used. If you have any questions about how you are supposed to cite these tools for an assignment make sure you consult with your instructor first.
The UM Libraries also offers guidelines on how to properly cite AI tools here.
The UM Libraries offers an AI Research Assistant tool that students can use to search the UM Libraries collections. This tool is more reliable for conducting academic research than using an open generative AI online tool like ChatGPT. You can check out the UM Library’s AI Research Assistant here.
Assuming there is an active permission to use AI tools in your course, you may be able to use these tools to assist in formatting your citations. Students should keep in mind that GenAI can make mistakes and may not include all the necessary formatting details for each citation style (UM Libraries, n.d.). Always double check that your citations are correct by comparing your work with a style guide.
If you are not allowed to use GenAI tools in your course work, you are not permitted to use these tools to format your citations.
The UM Libraries provides guidance on using AI to format citations here.
Unauthorized use of Generative AI is recognized as a form of academic misconduct at UM. As such, students who are not permitted to use AI or students who do not use AI within the parameters indicated by their instructors may face an academic misconduct allegation. Penalties for unauthorized use of GenAI can include:
These penalties can impact study permits, co-op placements, scholarships, and employment eligibility on campus.
AI is not a replacement for human work or judgement. There are several risks that arise while using AI and GenAI tools, including:
If you are concerned about being accused of using GenAI tools, there are precautions you can take to protect yourself and clearly show your authorship.
The University of Manitoba takes Academic Integrity very seriously. Listen to these episodes of “The Learning Curve” on UMFM.
Do you want to learn more about how academic integrity rules apply to your academic work? Check out these on-campus resources for more information about what is expected from you in your courses and how to incorporate academic integrity into your conduct.
Your first line of defense should always be to ask your professor, instructor, or teaching assistant (TA) for assistance or clarification.
There are many self-directed online resources to help you act with integrity. These resources are a great place to start learning to manage citations, do research, as well as to avoid misconduct in your work.
If you receive an allegation of academic misconduct, contact Student Advocacy as soon as possible. They will provide confidential guidance to help you address an allegation.
Are you an instructor looking for academic integrity tutorials and other resources for use in your course? Please see Knowledge Nuggets in UM Learn, a repository of teaching and learning resources for promoting academic integrity and related topics.
The Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning offers academic integrity supports to instructors.
Academic misconduct at UM is defined as “any action or attempted action that undermines the Academic Integrity of the University and may result in an unfair academic advantage or disadvantage for any member of the academic community or wider society” (University of Manitoba, 2025)
Most instances of academic dishonesty are accidental. Students make a mistake because they don't understand the rules, or the rules vary from course to course. This section covers the eight forms of academic misconduct that are recognized by UM, and how to avoid them.
UM defines plagiarism as “the presentation or use of information, ideas, sentences, findings, images, etc. as one’s own without appropriate attribution in any assessment.” (University of Manitoba, 2025).
Plagiarism can be intentional or unintentional. It is plagiarism whether you incorrectly add a citation, can’t remember where you got an idea and choose not to cite, or simply forget to include a citation.
Other terms for plagiarism include:
Make sure you cite correctly. If you are not sure how to cite, take advantage of help provided by the Academic Learning Centre, the libraries or talk to your instructor or TA.
The University of Manitoba (2025) defines cheating as “the circumventing of fair testing procedures or contravention of exam regulations. Such acts may be premeditated/planned or may be unintentional or opportunistic.”
If you do anything during an exam that gives you an unfair advantage, it is considered cheating. It is also your responsibility to protect your answers from view during an exam. Both a person being cheated off and the individual alleged to be cheating can be implicated in an academic misconduct investigation.
• looking at another student's paper or screen
• letting another student copy off of your exam knowingly or unknowingly.
• helping a friend on an exam
• not protecting your answers
• taking answers or cheat sheets into an exam
• using a cell phone or other unauthorized materials during an exam
• asking a TA for special treatment
• continuing to write after the exam time is up
• using unauthorized technological assistance in an exam (e.g. AI glasses, earpieces, etc.)
It is important to avoid even the appearance of cheating. Get help from instructors, teaching assistants, and join study groups well before exam time. If you find yourself overwhelmed during exam time, take advantage of counselling services to help you through. If someone asks you to help them cheat, speak to your instructor or talk to someone in Student Advocacy immediately.
Inappropriate collaboration occurs “when a Student and any other person work together on assignments, projects, labs or other work unless authorized by the course instructor." (University of Manitoba, 2025)
Learning how to work collaboratively with your peers is as important as learning to work by yourself in your university education. While it may be obvious that you shouldn’t work with another person on certain assignments, there can be situations where the line between appropriate and inappropriate collaboration can blur.
Students should always complete individual assignments independently and seek clarification if they are unsure of an instructor’s expectations.
Other terms for inappropriate collaboration include:
Depending on the expectations of your instructor, even asking a classmate to proofread a paper may be considered inappropriate collaboration. Unless the instructor has specifically stated the project can be worked on collaboratively with others or in groups, you should assume the assignment is meant to be done individually.
Duplicate submission is a form of “cheating where a student submits a paper/assignment/test in full or in part, for more than one course without the permission of the course instructor.” (University of Manitoba, 2025)
The university expects you to create new and original work for each class instead of re-using a previously submitted paper or assignment. You may notice that you are writing papers with similar topics, that there is a significant overlap between a past and current assignment, or that you want to build on a point you’ve made in a previous course. It is important that you first ask your professor if you can reuse work you have already submitted for a grade. If permission is granted, you must cite yourself.
Other terms for duplicate submission include: self-plagiarism and copying yourself.
Do not re-use old work. If you must, and you've received permission from a professor, you can cite yourself just as you would cite another author, but it should be for the purpose of expanding an idea or building on previous work not to cut corners or save time.
Impersonation is defined as “writing an assignment, lab, test, or examination for another Student, or the unauthorized use of another person’s signature or identification in order to impersonate someone else. Impersonation includes both the personator and the person initiating the impersonation.” (University of Manitoba, 2025)
Impersonation is straightforward. If you do something in place of another student, or another student does something in your place, you both have committed impersonation.
There is no grey area with impersonation. Only do your own work and never pretend to be another student or have someone else pretend to be you. Even signing an attendance sheet for someone else counts as impersonation.
Academic fraud is the “falsification of data or official documents as well as the falsification of medical or compassionate circumstances/documentation to gain accommodations to complete assignments, tests, examinations or other evaluations of academic work.” (University of Manitoba, 2025)
Sometimes you don't get the results you were expecting in your research. You may be tempted to alter your data or results slightly, especially if it appears to be a minor detail. But if everyone altered their data and results how could we trust or verify research that comes from UM?
Maybe you forgot about an exam and need some extra time to prepare. It can be tempting to reach out to your instructor and falsely ask for a deferral on compassionate grounds. But in doing so, you risk an allegation of academic misconduct by committing academic fraud.
Academic fraud has big implications, not just for you, but for everyone else at the institution.
Other names for academic fraud include:
It takes courage to be honest. If you need help, reach out to counselling services or speak to trusted authority figure like your professor, your teaching assistant or your supervisor.
Contract Cheating is defined as "the outsourcing of academic work to a third party to produce work in whole or in part, whether or not payment or favour is involved, and submitting it as one’s own" (University of Manitoba, 2025).
It is important that you complete your academic work independently. You can avoid contract cheating by effectively managing your time and talking to your instructor, or campus supports, if you need extra help.
Unauthorised Content Generation is defined as "the production of academic work, in whole or part, for academic credit, progression or award, whether or not any payment or other benefit is involved, using not explicitly approved or undeclared technological assistance" (University of Manitoba, 2025)
Familiarize yourself with your course syllabus and know when AI use is not permitted in a course. If you are allowed to use AI, always follow your instructor's guidelines and complete your work using only the tools that are explicitly permitted. When using AI tools you must be transparent about how you used it. If you're unsure, talk to your instructor.
Students across UM submitted creative memes that highlight the importance of academic integrity in everyday student life. Check out some of the standout entries that sparked conversations about academic integrity!
Complete this form and the academic integrity team will come to your classroom to discuss expectations of academic integrity at UM.
The Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning offers teaching resources to help instructors build expectations of academic integrity into assignments.
Instructions and letter templates for investigating allegations of academic misconduct for academic administrators.
Tiana Thomson
Academic Integrity Coordinator
Room 201 Tier Building
University of Manitoba (Fort Garry campus)
Chuping Chen
Academic Integrity Coordinator
Room 200 Tier Building
University of Manitoba (Fort Garry campus)
Academic Integrity
Tier Building
University of Manitoba (Fort Garry campus)
Winnipeg, MB R3T 2N2 Canada