The Implications of Impersonation When Completing BCFSA Courses

BCFSA holds licensees and those looking to enter the profession to the highest standards of academic integrity when taking licensing and continuing education courses. It is important that those pursuing education courses with BCFSA know that adherence to these standards means being consistent with BCFSA’s academic values: honesty, trust, fairness, respect, and responsibility. When participating in BCFSA’s education courses, learners are expected to cooperate with our policies.

Engaging in behaviour that goes against our values and policies may constitute academic misconduct, which can have serious implications.

Impersonation – where one assumes the identity of another person to participate in sessions or complete coursework on their behalf – is a form of academic misconduct. This article dives into what impersonation looks like, and how to avoid it.

Consequences of Engaging in Impersonation

Are you enrolled in a licensing or continuing education course but a conflict arises where you need to miss a session? When this situation arises, you may think it’s convenient to find someone to sit in for you. But what you may not realize is that this situation constitutes impersonation.

BCFSA does not tolerate impersonation and will pursue disciplinary action against those engaging in or facilitating it during their licensing or continuing education. Those who are registered for education with BCFSA and ask others to assume their identity will find themselves suspended from the course.

In addition, licensees who take part by impersonating another person may face review and possible investigation by BCFSA’s Compliance and Enforcement Department.

How to Avoid Impersonation

To help prevent impersonation, those registered in courses are required to actively participate in sessions with their camera on and without interruption during virtual classroom sessions.

We understand that conflicts can come up at the last minute. If you cannot attend a scheduled session, contact a BCFSA Education Team Member in advance of the class. We are happy to work with licensees to reschedule sessions. 

Other Forms of Academic Misconduct

In addition to impersonation, licensees are responsible for understanding what falls under academic misconduct, including:

• Cheating;
• Plagiarism;
• Submitting false records or information;
• Falsifying or submitting false documents;

• Disclosing BCFSA-owned evaluation content without authorization; and
• Failing to comply with discipline imposed for academic misconduct.

Find more information in our Academic and Non-academic Discipline Policy.