Department Policies

Department Plagiarism Policy

Updated Policy for Plagiarism and Cheating 2011 - Download PDF

Plagiarism and Cheating:

The Department of Pacific and Asian Studies upholds and enforces the University’s policies on plagiarism and cheating. These policies are described on pp. 33-34 of the current University Calendar (2010-11). All students are advised to read this section.

Practices that are not acceptable include:

1. Persuading or paying someone else to write your assignments, or otherwise presenting someone else’s work as your own;
2. Downloading essays or articles from the Internet, or copying passages from books or journals, and presenting them as your own work;
3. Copying from another student or sharing information in examinations or tests;
4. Bringing notes or other materials into an examination or test, except as authorized by the examiner or instructor.
5. Citing only a portion of a quotation, and presenting the remainder as the student's own work;

In addition, the following kinds of behaviour, unless specifically authorized by the instructor, are unacceptable in an examination: talking or communicating by computer or other electronic device with another student; looking at the work of other students while writing an exam; consulting books, electronic materials or other sources of information.

In every course, the instructor may choose to conduct an additional oral examination, in the presence of another faculty member from the Department, so as to ascertain the level of a student’s knowledge or understanding of the course material.

Penalties for Plagiarism and Cheating:

The possible penalties for plagiarism and cheating are outlined in the Calendar. An instructor will notify the Chair of the Department of cases of a suspected violation and the Chair will contact the student to arrange an interview with the student and instructor to review the case. If it is determined that a violation of University policy has occurred, the Chair will notify the Director of Academic Advising of the case and a letter of reprimand will be issued to the student. Any repeat offenses will be dealt with directly by the Dean. In the Department of Pacific and Asian Studies, the minimum penalty for a first offence will be an automatic F grade (0%) for the assignment, examination or test, with a note from the instructor going on file with the Department. Depending upon the seriousness of the offense and the weight of the assignment, the Instructor may assign an automatic F grade (0 GPA) for the course.

Students will not be permitted to rewrite an assignment, examination or test on which they have been found to be cheating. Records of any violation will be held by the Director of Academic Advising on behalf of the Dean of Humanities. Such records will be destroyed four years after a student graduates. A repeat offence may result in the additional penalty of Disciplinary Probation being placed on the student's Official Transcript by the Dean; this notation is removed upon graduation.

If you have any doubts about the University’s policies, or want to know if a practice is acceptable or not, you should raise your concerns with your course instructor.

(2010/2011)

Policy on Attendance

Students are both expected and required to attend all of their class, lab, and tutorial sessions. In accordance with the policies of the Department of Pacific and Asian Studies, any student who misses more than 10% of their class sessions may not be permitted to write the final exam.

(December 2007)

Native Speaker Policy

Chinese program:"Native Speakers" are those who are native speakers of any of these languages and who are also able to read at least simple materials (i.e. at the middle school level) written in the Chinese script.

Japanese program:"Native Speakers" are those who has spoken Japanese since childhood and who has received sufficient instruction to be literate in Japanese.

(November 2007)