An institutional body, most commonly found in colleges and universities, responsible for supporting and overseeing an institution’s standards, policies, and procedures related to academic integrity. Academic-integrity committees and related honor systems have longstanding roots in higher education; some institutional honor committees date to the late 19th century.

Depending on the institution, an academic integrity council or committee may educate students and faculty about:

• expectations for academic work
• review or recommend academic-integrity policies
• hear or adjudicate cases involving alleged cheating, plagiarism, unauthorized use of artificial intelligence (AI), or other forms of academic misconduct
• consider appeals or recommend sanctions; and advise institutional leaders about emerging academic-integrity issues.

Membership often includes faculty, administrators, staff, and students. The structure, authority, and responsibilities of these bodies vary substantially across institutions.

Generative AI is putting new pressure on these longstanding structures. Colleges report substantial increases in academic-integrity cases associated with AI, while faculty and committees face new challenges in determining what constitutes unauthorized AI use and how misuse can be established fairly.

Some institutions are consequently reconsidering traditional committee-based adjudication, shifting certain cases to instructors, designated academic-integrity officials, or centralized offices, while placing greater emphasis on prevention, clearer expectations for AI use, and redesigned assessments.