Academic Integrity Policy

Honesty is a core value within National Midwifery Institute. The members of its community both require and expect one another to act with civility, personal integrity, and respect for one another’s dignity, rights, and intellectual property. This requires participation from all members of the NMI community to help create and maintain an environment in which all can succeed through the fruits of their own efforts. An environment of academic integrity is requisite to respect for self and others. NMI requires that each member of the NMI community adhere to the following principles and rules and pursue academic work in a truthful and straightforward manner, free from deception or fraud.

In order to complete their enrollment at NMI, students sign an Academic Integrity Agreement. The Academic Integrity Agreement includes a commitment not to engage in or tolerate acts of falsification, misrepresentation, or deception. Below is a list of specific actions that NMI considers academic dishonesty, as well as our procedure for addressing violations.

Definitions of Academic Dishonesty

Cheating: Cheating is defined as fraud, deceit, or dishonesty in an academic assignment, or using or attempting to use materials, or assisting others in using materials that are prohibited or inappropriate in the context of the academic assignment in question, such as:

  • Copying or attempting to copy from others during an exam or on an assignment.

  • Communicating answers with another person during an exam.

  • Preprogramming a calculator, cell phone, pager, PDA or other electronic device to contain answers or other unauthorized information for exams.

  • Using unauthorized materials, prepared answers, written notes, or concealed information during an exam.

  • Allowing others to do an assignment or portion of an assignment, including the use of a commercial term-paper service.

  • Submission of the same assignment for more than one course without prior approval of all Instructors involved.

  • Collaborating on an exam or assignment with any other person without prior approval from the instructor.

  • Taking an exam for another person or having someone take an exam for them.

  • Using resources on an exercise that was intended by the Instructor to be completed without resources.

Plagiarism: Plagiarism is defined as use of intellectual material produced by another person without acknowledging its source, for example:

  • Wholesale copying of passages from works of others into modular course work without acknowledgement.

  • Use of the views, opinions, or insights of another without acknowledgment (i.e using sources without citation or attribution).

  • Working with another individual on an assignment, sharing information and files, and then turning in separate identical copies of that assignment as one’s own individual work.

False Information and Representation, Fabrication or Alteration of Information:

  • Furnishing false information/representation in the context of an academic assignment.

  • Fabricating or altering information or data (such as clinical experiences) and presenting it as legitimate.

  • Providing false or misleading information to an Instructor or any other NMI official or staff person.

Academic Misconduct: Other academically dishonest acts, including but not limited to:

  • Allowing another student to use their work and claim it as their own.

  • Tampering with the work of another student.

  • Facilitating other students’ acts of academic dishonesty.

  • Attempting to falsify an excuse in order to receive an extension on a deadline.

It is the responsibility of all students, faculty, and staff to report any violations of NMI’s Academic Integrity Policy to a Course Work Instructor or to one of the the Program’s Educational Director.

NMI Procedure for Addressing Academic Dishonesty:

A student shall be promptly informed of any accusation of academic misconduct. NMI’s procedure for handling such cases shall be as follows: Individual cases will be handled initially by the Instructor of the course concerned, as required by the Instructor’s professional responsibility to assess the performance of their students. The Instructor will notify the student of the alleged infraction and what course of action and penalty the Instructor believes is appropriate. The student will be allowed an opportunity to rebut the allegation within 10 business days of receiving their notification. NMI Educational Director will be apprised of any actions taken on the basis of this conference. The penalty imposed by the Instructor may not exceed mandatory resubmission of all course work submissions in violation of the NMI Academic Integrity Agreement, in which case the student will be informed in writing of the specific modules requiring resubmission due to academic misconduct. Instructor will provide NMI Educational Director with copies/cc’d correspondence between the Instructor and student, which may prompt that further action be taken as follows:

1. NMI Educational Director, when informed of an incident of academic misconduct may take appropriate action including suspension or dismissal from the program; however, such an action shall not take place before the student has been advised of the allegation by NMI Educational Director or their representative in writing and in a timely fashion (within 10 business days of the Educational Director receiving notice of the violation), and not before the student has been given an opportunity to reply to or repudiate the charges.

2. Any student penalized under those procedures may appeal the decision. In any appeal, the student involved has the right to the presence of an advisor of the student’s choice. Appeal of an Instructor’s decision requires a written request for appeal be sent to NMI Educational Director within 30 days, unless the student presents evidence of circumstances preventing this timely response. Within two weeks of receipt of an appeal notification, an Educational Director will schedule a meeting to afford the student an opportunity to reply to or repudiate the charges. The Educational Director’s appellate decision can be appealed to a Program Director and committee (see below). Any new data or evidence that becomes available will return consideration of the incident to NMI Educational Director.

1. In cases where a NMI Educational Director is the primary respondent, or in cases where a NMI Educational Director imposes a significant further penalty beyond that imposed by the coursework Instructor, the student’s appeal of the Educational Director’s decision must be made in writing within 10 business days to an NMI Program Director. The Program Director will respond to the student within 10 business days of receipt to schedule a committee hearing to afford the student an opportunity to reply to or repudiate the charges. The committee will include:

  • i. An Educational Director, or another faculty member if the Educational Director was involved in the incident;

  • ii. A Faculty Member;

  • iii. A Program Director;

  • iv. One other faculty member;

  • v. A student representative.

Committee members shall:

  • Give advance notice of at least five days of the hearing to all parties involved.

  • Make decisions by consensus.

  • Keep minutes of the proceedings, and make these minutes available to all involved parties within ten days of the decision.

  • Notify the student of the committee’s decision within ten days.

  • NMI’s Grievance Mechanism is available to any other student who feels that their dignity, rights, or intellectual property have been transgressed in an incident of academic misconduct.

Sanctions for Repeated Violations of Academic Integrity Policy:

Students who have more than one violation of NMI’s Academic Integrity Policy may be subject to the following sanctions:

  • Suspension from the program;

  • Loss of any NMI Scholarship;

  • Dismissal from the program.

Sanctions are at the discretion of the Educational Directors and the Program Directors. Students have the right to utilize the above appeal process(es) following notification of sanctions. When a student appeals sanctions, student may involve an additional advocate.