Departmental Policies

Academic Misconduct

In line with university regulations concerning allegations of academic misconduct, the Department of Mathematics has adopted the following policy to be applied to all courses offered through this department.

Following all procedures outlined in the undergraduate academic calendar, if there is evidence of academic misconduct, and provided there is no prior record of academic misconduct, the minimum penalty shall be a grade of zero for the assignment, project, test, exam or other activity. Depending on the type of academic misconduct, further penalties may be applied including the assignment of a failure in the course.

If the student has a prior record, the case will be referred to the Dean of Science for further investigation.

The department uses many strategies to detect academic misconduct, such as Turnitin, a plagiarism-checking web-based service that reports the percentage similarity between an assignment and other sources including websites, journals, previous student work and current student work.

Deferral of Midterm Exams

For all courses offered through the Department of Mathematics, no deferrals of midterm tests will be granted. If a student misses a midterm test for reasons of illness or an unavoidable conflict, and is able to provide documentation in support of a valid reason (e.g. Illness Self-Declaration form dated for the day of the midterm test) within one week of the missed midterm test, redistribution of course grades may be considered by the course instructor.

If the student is unable to provide a valid reason for not participating in the midterm test with supporting documentation (to be decided upon by the course instructor in line with university policies), a grade of zero will be assigned to the midterm test. Students are advised to consult the academic calendar for university regulations regarding grade reassessment in the event they are unhappy with an instructor’s decision regarding a missed midterm test.