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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.
On this page:
Student resources Academic misconduct Faculty and staff resources
There are policies at the UM that every student is responsible to know. Violations of these policies can and do result in some pretty significant consequences. For each course, students will receive a course outline that will include information about Academic Integrity policies here at the UM. Students are expected to know these policies. Saying “I didn’t know” is not a reasonable excuse. Students must ask their instructors any questions about what is allowed or not allowed.
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.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools are becoming more accessible to the general public, and this has implications for education and the completion of course work. AI is a complex issue for students and instructors to navigate, and we want to support you as this topic continues to evolve.
Artificial intelligence could fall into any of the following types of tools:
These are tools that generate text, video or images based on questions, phrases, or keywords that you provide.
It depends. If your instructor asks you to complete your work independently, AI would be viewed as academic misconduct/cheating. But if you are asked to use AI technology to complete an assignment, in part or in full, it may be permitted.
Yes. Here’s how:
AI is not a replacement for human work or judgement. There are several issues, including:
Yes, there are tools to detect if AI was used to create content. Your instructor is also an expert in their field and can use their judgement and experience with your previous work to assess your assignments.
Use of AI tools when not permitted by your instructor may be considered inappropriate collaboration, plagiarism or cheating.
Penalties for academic misconduct range from a 0 on the assignment, F in the course, notation on your transcript, or suspension/expulsion. These penalties can also impact study permits, co-op placements, and scholarships.
The University of Manitoba takes Academic Integrity very seriously. Listen to these episodes of “The Learning Curve” on UMFM.
This video focuses on helping students avoid academic misconduct when working in an online or remote learning environment.
Academic integrity in an online environment (video)
There are a number of people and places on campus that will help you understand the rules and how they apply to academic work. If you have questions or are uncertain about what is expected of you in your courses, you have several options.
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.
Student Advocacy How an academic misconduct investigation works
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.
Most instances of academic dishonesty are accidental. Students make a mistake because they don't understand the rules, or rules are different for each class. This section covers the six most common types of academic dishonesty 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.
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.
Francois Jordaan
Academic Integrity Coordinator
Room 201 Tier Building
University of Manitoba (Fort Garry campus)
Gabrielle Oprea
Academic Integrity Coordinator
Room 200A Tier Building
University of Manitoba (Fort Garry campus)
Academic Integrity
Tier Building
University of Manitoba (Fort Garry campus)
Winnipeg, MB R3T 2N2 Canada