I will not lie, cheat or steal to gain an academic advantage, or tolerate those who do.

The Illinois MBA community believes that honesty and integrity are qualities necessary for rewarding academic and professional experiences. These qualities form the basis for the strong trust among all members of the academic community (students, faculty, and administrators) that is essential for excellence in education. The purpose of the Honor Code is therefore to express a commitment to promote principles of honesty, integrity, and trust among Illinois MBA students. Therefore, prior to entering the program, each student is asked to commit to the principles of this Honor Code and, by signing the Honor Code, agrees to abide by the Code.

The Honor Code requires that each student acts with integrity in all academic activities and that each student endeavors to hold his or her peers to the same standard.

Violations of the Honor Code include:

- Lying: Lying includes knowingly communicating an untruth in order to gain an unfair academic advantage or neglecting to divulge information when under the circumstances a person of integrity would be expected to disclose the matter.

- Cheating/fraud: Cheating/fraud includes using unauthorized materials to complete an assignment; copying the work of another student, or representing another's work as one's own work (plagiarism); falsifying one's identity by having another person take an exam; unauthorized providing of materials or information to others during exams; and any other activity which gives a student an unfair academic advantage. All communications, written, oral or otherwise, among students during examinations, are forbidden, as is the use of notes, books, calculators, or other written material except when approved by the instructor.

- Stealing: Students are required to submit their own work. Ideas, data, direct quotations, paraphrasing, or any other incorporation of the work of others must be clearly referenced. To do otherwise constitutes plagiarism (i.e. using the work of another without giving proper credit).

This list is not inclusive and is included for illustrative purposes.

Upon witnessing a violation of the Honor Code, a student has a moral obligation to inform the student whose conduct is believed to be in violation of the Code that the Code has been violated. Each member of the Illinois MBA community, as a person of integrity, has a personal obligation to adhere to this requirement. The student also has the right to inform a member of the faculty and/or submit a written complaint to the Chair of the MBA Academic Integrity Hearing Committee.