How not to cheat: A student’s guide to academic integrity at TMU

At Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU), we’re committed to upholding the highest standards of academic integrity and students play an important role. With due dates and tests piling up, it’s a good time to become familiar with academic misconduct.

Learn about the consequences of cheating and the TMU services that can help you succeed below.

You can also read TMU’s Policy 60: Academic Integrity for more details on academic misconduct and the investigation processes.

What is academic misconduct?

Any behaviour that undermines the ability to evaluate students’ academic achievements fairly counts as academic misconduct. This includes any behaviour that a student knew, or reasonably should have known, could result in an unearned academic advantage or benefit.

Examples of academic misconduct are: 

• Contract cheating
• Cheating
• Plagiarism
• Submitting of false information
• Contributing to academic misconduct
• Damaging, tampering or interfering with the scholarly environment
• Unauthorized use of intellectual property
• Misconduct in re-graded/re-submitted work

What is contract cheating?

Contract cheating happens when a third party completes work for a student and the student submits the work as their own. This might look like buying an essay or having someone attend class or write an exam for you.

Students should avoid offers of help they receive on social media, as contract cheating companies are known to target students online. Some even blackmail students and report the use of their services back to the university.

What is plagiarism?

Plagiarism is using someone else’s intellectual property and claiming it as your own. While students tend to think plagiarism is just about taking the exact words from an article or essay and not citing them, it’s much more than that. Plagiarism includes taking ideas, images, code or even someone’s choreography–anything that takes intellectual and/or creative labour to create–without acknowledging where that work came from. 

Self-plagiarism is where a student submits their own work for credit in two or more courses. For example, if a student wrote an essay for a fall semester course and then also uses that same essay for a winter semester course, that’s self-plagiarism.

What are other types of cheating?

These scenarios are also considered cheating:

• Having access to devices that aren’t allowed during a test
• Going to the washroom during a test and looking at course materials
• Copying another person’s answers or work
• Getting access to exam questions through theft, bribery or deceit
• Collaborating on an assignment when it is not allowed
• Presenting false information including research results
• Resubmitting an altered test after it has already been marked
• Unauthorized use of Generative AI (e.g., Grammarly, ChatGPT, Gemini)

What are the consequences of academic misconduct?

There are a range of penalties for academic misconduct. They are determined after the student is given an opportunity to speak with their instructor about the concern and to share their perspective. 

Penalties include:

• A grade of zero on the academic work
• Failing the course
• Temporary or permanent removal from a co-op program, placement, internship or practicum
• Disciplinary suspension lasting between one term to two years
• Disciplinary withdrawal
• Expulsion
• Revocation of a degree, diploma or certificate

All students who are found to have engaged in academic misconduct will have a Disciplinary Notation (DN) placed on their academic record. Students with a DN cannot be on a Dean’s List or be nominated for internal awards and scholarships for that academic year.

How to avoid academic misconduct?

To avoid getting involved in academic misconduct by mistake, students can follow some simple rules:

• Don’t send your work to others
• Don’t upload your work to file sharing sites
• Add a copyright notice to any work you share publicly such as a portfolio or writing samples or artwork
• Secure your laptop and don’t share login credentials
• Know the rules for every assignment or test

Students who need help completing assignments and passing their courses can use the legitimate services available on campus. 

These services can help you manage your schedule, teach you how to write and edit an essay and cite sources properly and give you tips to pass your exams.

General help

• Academic Accommodation Support: Helps students get the disability-related academic accommodations they need like assignment extensions, extra time on tests and note-taking help.
• Academic Edge: Six-week program that provides a supportive community for students to learn how to be a university student at university. Includes goal setting, managing time, preparing for exams and more.
• Tutoring services: Math & Computer Science Support offers tutoring for math, science and economics.
• International Student Support (ISS): ISS offers one-to-one meetings and drop-in sessions to support student success.

Writing help

• 1-on-1 academic writing appointments: Support with thesis writing, essay organization and more.
• 1-on-1 grammar/self-editing appointments: Support developing the skills you need to edit your own work.
• Essay 101: A multi-week program that provides writing strategy content along with supported writing time.
• Writing skills workshops: Topics including: citations, effective revision and editing,  Artificial Intelligence & Academic Writing, and AI & You: Beyond Academic Integrity.

Studying and time management

• Academic skills workshops: Topics include time & task management, learning from lectures, and preparing for tests & exams.
• Peer academic coaches: Get peer support with task management, study scheduling, time blocking strategies and more.
• Notion workshops: Learn how to use your free Notion subscription to support studying in a way that doesn’t compromise academic integrity.

How to report suspected academic misconduct?

If students become aware of academic misconduct in real-time, they should reach out to their professor or instructor as soon as possible to let them know. 

Students can also email the Academic Integrity Office at aio@torontomu.ca. The office can bring the matter to the instructor if the student prefers.

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