Forgery of a death certificate

code | scenario | smart strategies | consequences

Code of Behaviour on Academic Matters

1. It shall be an offence for a student knowingly:

(a) to forge or in any other way alter or falsify any document or evidence required by the University, or to utter, circulate or make use of any such forged, altered or falsified document, whether the record be in print or electronic form;

Wherever in the Code an offence is described as depending on “knowing”, the offence shall likewise be deemed to have been committed if the person ought reasonably to have known.

Scenario – Forgery of a death certificate

You are extremely stressed out and feel overwhelmed with the workload near the end of first term. Exams are just a few days away, and you are not prepared for your Math exam, which will be held the first day of the exam period. You are nervous and feel like you definitely need more time to study.  You come up with the idea of skipping your exam and notifying your instructor that you were absent due to the death of a loved one. Your instructor says that they understand your difficult situation, but requests that you provide supporting documentation to keep on file. You hadn’t anticipated them asking for any paperwork, so you spend a bit of time creating a fake funeral program and death certificate, and submit them to the prof the next day.

The Issue

Lying to the instructor or submitting falsified documents to support your absence from an exam will only make things worse. Instructors often take steps to confirm the authenticity of documents submitted to explain a student’s absence. You are committing an academic offence by forging, altering or falsifying a document that is required by the University, or by circulating such a document, and there are serious consequences for such actions.

Smart Strategies

Range of Consequences

For a discussion of consequences see Key Consequences.