Academia is one of the world’s first steps to ensure the growth of intellect and intelligence. There are a lot of actions required to ensure that the integrity and sanctity of this is not lost at the hands of technology. Academics give life to a lot of concepts that become important for us to learn because of the changing nature of circumstances around us. Integrity can be defined as a commitment to five fundamental values of honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility.
Even when faced with adversity, these values should always be upheld and attention is to be paid to all these in detail. It is helpful to think of academic integrity in terms of ethical decision making. There are a lot of choices that one has to make during their tenure as a student and they will be faced by the daunting task of adhering to these values. The maximum effect of the study can only be gained when there is adequate weightage placed on all these parameters.
When one commits to these values they commit to a way of learning that will support in building a knowledge base that is required to provide quality service to the people in the line of work that will be chosen in the future. It is the most efficient method to respect the people that will rely on your services a few years later. The “International centre for academic integrity states that when the fundamental values are embraced, utilized and put into practice, they become touchstones for scholarly communities of integrity” (CAI).
Graduation from a certain study may also involve joining an organization that recognizes ethical standards of practice which resonate with the values of academic integrity. These expectations are important as the organizations that recruit are in line with these values that have been stated earlier. This means a lot to me as responsibility of adhering to this will not only give a higher standard of learning but will also ensure that there is a large amount of knowledge procured with the intervention of an external source of help.
This will not only help in achieving greater success in the field of service but also ensure the overall growth that can help tackle real life problems and application of the concepts learnt during college. Guidelines for Academic integrity The first step might include a necessity to committing to honesty by submitting original work, completing tests and exams honestly, and working in the student placement to build honest relationships.
Committing to developing trust may include, working on trusting relationships, with those who benefit by one’s professional presence and ensuring confidentiality of that information. Treating everyone fairly and having no personal bias is another method of adhering to the values. Submitting authentic work for all assignments, being on time with those submissions, attending class and student placements and identifying gaps in knowledge base and seeking to address these gaps are few of the many ways to ensure a safe and detailed method of learning.
If there is inadequate preparation for a certain academic assessment the repercussions should be faced rather committing a grave mistake of academic dishonesty. This may cause a minor gain while losing out on the most important attribute of committing to integrity. These concepts are important to the university because integrity when working towards a desired outcome is one of the most important attributes that will decide the amount of knowledge gained through an activity.
The university needs to maintain a high level of vigilance and instil a mandatory level of responsibility that must be followed by all the members of the institution. The concept is significant to the university because the reputation of a harbinger of knowledge is always attributed to the practices carried out in that place. Once the ideals are embraced by any institution, it increases the level of authenticity of that organization as an educational institution and creates a better place for learning and development of the individuals hat benefit from it.
It is necessary that every university in the world embraces these set of rules and morals and invigilates the student with adequate amount of supervision to find out if the rules are being followed to the minutest detail. Role of the instructor and the student The professors need to ensure that no bias or favouritism occurs during the process of teaching and the students need to understand the basic concepts of moral fibre that will help them adhere to the rules of integrity.
The instructors will have a written set of rules that need to be followed regarding the way in which knowledge should be imparted to the pupils. The duty of the instructors is to follow this method very strictly and realize that the first step towards academic integrity begins with them and not the students. If the example set by the teachers is unbiased and they are able to instil moral fibre students, an assurity of them being able to write knowledge based answers is higher as they analyse subjects rather than just explain it according to textual content read by them.
The student on the other hand needs to judiciously follow the words of his instructor and work honestly to put of some original work that will help the teacher asses the grasping capability of the student and ensure a high level of emphasis in areas that has not been dealt with according the required level of satisfaction as advised by the institution or the affiliation that the university has procured.
Integrity is a huge issue in academics and this is mainly because the system that is created by the institutions around the world emphasizes a lot on the procurement of grades rather than understanding the essence of the teachings imparted. The greatest achievement of educational institutions around the world would be to accept that grades are only a reflection of the theoretical knowledge and this can be gained by studying and being able to reproduce textual information in examinations or projects.
The real test would be to create a system where the application of these concepts is tested by being able to re-assess the situation management with the knowledge in hand. Academic dishonesty Academic dishonesty is one of the most detrimental factors that affect the integrity to such a great extent that the level of integrity is dropped to a very high extent when such acts are committed.
A few example of this concept include: • Cheating • Bribery • Impersonation • Fabrication • Plagiarism • Sabotage (DOS) Cheating and bribery is one of the oldest methods of academic dishonesty and there have been several examples from the past where a lapse in upholding these factors has led to considerable damage to the people of the world. Impersonation involves the entry of another entity that would help the student by being able to fake the identity to the invigilators.
This is usually done for money and there is a huge amount of work that follows this pattern of completion. The amount of knowledge tested (by the University for the Students) does not mean much because the person giving the exam or writing the assignments is completely different. Plagiarism is one of the most common mistakes made by the students and though the concepts could be express in one’s own words, copying the matter completely from another location is unforgivable and this is the definition of the word “plagiarism”.
Sabotage is not only an academic integrity issue but also a criminal offence. This can vary from the number of people to the duration of the sabotage. Sabotage may also be defined as the forceful attempt of not allowing the assessing techniques to be carried out by the institution and to create a situation where people are not able to carry out their duty as students and adhere to the basis of evaluation.
Reason for Academic dishonesty The main factors that influence dishonesty amongst students is to get better grades and to be more successful on paper as compared to the others with same method of evaluation. The quest for higher marks and grades has decreased the productivity of the people around the world and has introduced the concept of a race to the finish. Another important attribute that leads to academic dishonesty is the ease of work as the amount of hours spent when practicing to carry out the task or the effort required to carry out a given assignment is reduced considerably.
This only causes the downfall of a human being as they are seldom put into challenging situation where their knowledge and skill is tested. Dishonesty does not benefit the institution as well and the student and regular checks should be made to ensure that there is negligible or no dishonesty during a process. (Delta) Conclusion Academic integrity gives a lot of meaning and value to the major factors of learning and application of theoretical knowledge to help create a better end result for the student and the university.
There is a lot of weightage given to these values all over the world and as the number of universities following these norms increases daily there is a hope that education with upheld amongst all odds. Relying on technology is not only dangerous but creates a huge dip in the learning and grasping curve of individuals around the world and they feel handicapped without its presence. Once basic knowledge is procured, there is a greater use of technology in the hands of the people.
