Message from the Vice-President Academic and Provost
Intellectual Integrity
Honesty, probity, and moral integrity are of the utmost importance in interpersonal relations, and are thus the founding principles of a just and harmonious society whose members respect one another. Educational systems recognize that to educate is to promote the cardinal virtues: students must acquire not only the skills and knowledge specific to their discipline and a rich personal culture relevant in society, but also the moral behaviour that allows them to be worthy citizens.
It is well known that people with a university education often occupy key positions and quickly become influential leaders within various social spheres. Not surprisingly, the University of Ottawa’s priority concern is thus to promote ethical behaviour in all its activities, particularly in those academic activities where students learn the rules of intellectual life. Absolute honesty must be at the core of intellectual work — a moral imperative that is vast, comprehensive, complex and difficult since it involves respect for others and their ideas, for otherness in all its aspects, as well as recognition of others’ contribution to the expansion of knowledge and to our own acquisition of knowledge.
This last aspect in particular is a difficult path for students as they learn about intellectual work. As intellectual apprentices, they must learn to think for themselves, develop their own ideas and widen their scholarly horizon. They are asked to be original and creative while at the same time building on knowledge that has been patiently acquired by generations of scholars, thinkers and intellectuals whose legacy they have inherited and draw upon. Therefore, they must learn to acknowledge this heritage appropriately in all their academic work. To present as one’s own someone else’s ideas is an intellectual theft that cannot be tolerated.
I invite you to consult the various sections of this Web site that examine different aspects of this complex reality.
Vice-President Academic and Provost