Academic Honesty Policy

Marquette University is committed to developing the whole person, spiritually, mentally, physically, socially and ethically. As an institution of higher education, Marquette has love of truth at the center of its enterprise. Academic honesty, in all its forms, is an explicit value of the university.

The development and practice of academic honesty and integrity, inside and outside the classroom, are expectations for all members of the university community. In order to cultivate academic honesty in its students, instructors take every opportunity to help students appreciate the process and the principles of academic integrity.

Academic honesty can be best understood by academic ethical standards guiding faculty in their work. That is to say, an individual’s contributions, in terms of words and scholarly findings, belong to him or her alone. Furthermore, the integrity of that which one claims to be scholarly knowledge rests on the accurate demonstration of the assumptions and reasoning that produced it. These standards are used as the implicit basis for teaching and learning in the university.

In order for instructors to fairly assess the quality and quantity of a student’s learning as determined by work that students represent as their own, a relationship of trust between instructor and student is essential. Because violations of academic integrity most often involve, but are not limited to, efforts to deceive instructors, they represent a breach of the trust relationship between instructor and student and undermine the core values of the university.

This policy was developed and approved by the Committee on Academic Procedures and University Board of Undergraduate Studies. Both groups would like to express their gratitude to the University of California- Irvine, whose UCI Academic Senate Policy on Academic Honesty provided the framework for the resulting document.