UGA seeks to promote and ensure academic honesty and personal integrity among students and the university community. Academic honesty is vital to the very fabric and integrity of the university.
Academic honesty is defined as completing all academic work without cheating, lying, stealing, or receiving assistance from any other person or using any source of information not appropriately authorized or attributed.
All students are required to follow the academic honesty policy. All members of the university community are responsible for creating and maintaining an honest university and for knowing and understanding the policy on academic honesty.
A Culture of Honesty is the academic honesty policy and procedures of the University of Georgia. The policy is available online at honesty.uga.edu.
These procedures are designed to protect academic integrity while providing due process when suspected violations of the academic honesty policy occur.
The academic honesty process is adopted by the university to further its academic mission. In the interest of fairness, the policy requires notice to a student accused of violating this policy. The policy first provides for a Facilitated Discussion between the student and the instructor to seek a fair resolution to the alleged violation. If a matter is not resolved through a Facilitated Discussion, the policy allows for a Continued Discussion with an Academic Honesty Panel.
These procedures are designed to 1) protect the rights and interests of students and the university community, 2) guarantee fairness to all, and 3) ensure order. The forums used in academic honesty matters are designed to be educational while providing appropriate consequences when academic dishonesty occurs.
The goals of this academic honesty policy are to:
- Foster a culture of academic honesty at the university.
- Maintain the integrity and academic reputation of the university.
- Process, fairly and consistently, cases of potential academic dishonesty.