Academic integrity

Me tika.  Me rite.  Me pono.

The University of Waikato is committed to excellence, respect, and honesty in scholarship and to ethical professional conduct. Academic integrity is at the core of this commitment and requires all members of the University community (students, academic and general staff) to uphold academic integrity as a personal, academic, and professional responsibility.

Mā te Tangata!  Mō te Tangata!

The way in which academic misconduct is dealt with at the University is underpinned by the Student Discipline Regulations.These regulations offer definitions of misconduct, and outline how breaches of misconduct will be dealt with.

Staff have the responsibility to ensure opportunities for academic misconduct are minimised.

Actions you can take

Actions you can take to encourage students’ positive behaviour include:

  • Assessment design that minimises the possibilities of plagiarism.
  • Be open and proactive in discussing academic misconduct, ethical behaviour, plagiarism and cheating, and ensure that your paper outline contains the correct Regulations and information about University procedures.
  • Be aware of tools, devices and websites relevant to your discipline which students may use.
  • Set, share and discuss your expectations with students. Ensure students know how to ask for extensions, ask for help and where to go on campus for support.
  • Ensure students have completed the Academic Integrity module in Moodle.

Artificial intelligence

Recent developments in artificial intelligence (AI) present challenges and opportunities for how we design our assessments. New tools and devices using AI are continuously emerging. The broad assessment design principles recommended below should also deal with the emerging use of AI. Turnitin remains an effective tool for the detection of plagiarism. Turnitin also has an AI detection tool that is currently available when grading in Feedback Studio.

Guidelines on the use of generative AI tools have been shared with students and are available on the Regulations and processes page.

For the latest updates, assessment design tips, and recommendations on AI use, see:

Assessment design

Assessment design to promote positive behaviour:

  • Modify the task each year so that students cannot copy work from previous years.
  • Use and discuss clear, relevant marking criteria and rubrics with your students.
  • Set sub-tasks that require students to show their process steps.
  • Avoid designing an assessment task or an assessment schedule that might overburden the students. Students under pressure are more likely to cheat or seek unauthorised help.
  • Include an oral component where you can revisit what was written.
  • Include an individual component in a group task; highlight that collusion is a form of academic misconduct.
  • Avoid surface-level tasks that only require reproduction of material.
  • Use different types of assessment tasks.
  • Develop assessment tasks that have more than one solution.
  • Design formative assessment (that does not count toward the overall grade) that links to summative assessment (that does count toward the overall grade).
  • Develop a regular and robust assessment-feedback-learning loop. Provide actionable feedback to students, and adjust your teaching when you identify gaps in students’ learning or application.

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