Cheating, plagiarism, falsification and sexual assault cases all saw a decrease at both UBC Vancouver and UBC Okanagan, according to the 2022/23 Student Discipline Report.
This annual report records all cases of academic and non-academic misconduct that appeared before the President’s Advisory Committee — with 2022/23 totalling 69 cases, a decrease from the previous year’s total of 98.
This report categorizes cases by UBC’s official definitions of cheating, falsification, impersonation and plagiarism.
Don't overthink it
“I’d be cautious to draw too much inference from those numbers [of the reports],” said Vice Provost and Associate Vice-President, Teaching and Learning Simon Bates when asked about the declining number of cases. He said that during the COVID-19 pandemic there were a significant number of large misconduct cases involving multiple students, which inflated the number of previous cases.
Bates also introduced a new alternative path — the diversionary process. Instead of sending students to the Dean’s Office, the new process focuses on an educative approach to academic misconduct. He said that this process only happens if the case is not “hugely serious” and both the student and faculty consent to going through that process.
“We’ve had over a 100 … diversion cases come through our academic integrity hub in the Provost Office,” said Bates. “And a good number of those would otherwise have gone on to [the President’s Advisory Committee].”
When asked whether there even is a downward trend, Bates remarked that he doesn’t know, but he does know that, “this is a very, very small fraction of the students that we have at UBC … the vast majority of the students who study at UBC realize they are part of an academic scholarly committee … which [values] acting with integrity.”
Has AI made a difference?
ChatGPT was released late 2022, and though last year’s report voiced concerns about the potential for more cases of academic misconduct, these concerns have not materialized.
Plagiarism refers to presenting someone else’s ideas and work as your own without giving that person credit. Cheating is the act of providing or using unauthorized methods to gain academic credit through dishonest means.
Eighteen plagiarism cases were reported this year — twelve at UBCV and six at UBCO. This was slightly lower than the previous year’s total of 24. Cheating cases have also decreased from 46 to 34, UBCV having 29 cases and UBCO having 5.
There were a total of four falsification cases, two at each campus, which is defined as the act of providing false or incomplete information to UBC.
There was only one case of impersonation at the Vancouver campus, which involves pretending to be someone else in order to do work on their behalf. Last year there was also one case.
Bates said that faculties have adapted to Generative AI by altering their form of assessment. “The challenge is how to incorporate them meaningfully into courses,” he said. The Vancouver Senate has also released draft guidelines to help professors and students navigate AI in the classroom.
“I think it’s interesting redesigning assessment [around] looking at the process of assessed work … rather than just assessing the final product.”
Non-academic misconduct
Sexual misconduct cases decreased from 15 to 8. These cases were all a violation of UBC’s Policy SC-17, five of which were at UBCV.
Violations of UBC’s Student Code of Conduct, which refers to inappropriate, non-consensual or harmful behaviour, saw a slight decrease from four cases last year to three this year.
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