ACADEMIC INTEGFUTY AND ETHICS: ISSUES, GUIDELINES AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Abstract

Academic integrity and ethics are crucial for maintaining public trust in the academic community ability to carry out its roles of teaching, research and service. This paper addresses issues of integrity and ethics in these three areas of the academic life. Ethical issues in teaching include responsibility in instruction, respect for students and fairness in grading. In its primary role of teaching, it is shown to be necessary for the university to educate students and staff on good character traits and train them to recognize and avoid cheating and plagiarism. Ethical issues relating to research include fraud in data gathering, storage and retrieval and supervision of research personnel. Ethical issues in publication, a public service, relate more to issues of attribution of credit, plagiarism and co-authorship. It is, therefore, proposed that OAU develop a code of academic integrity and ethics for all staff and students. This is done by developing guidelines and structures to reinforce academic integrity and ethics. The basis, significance, features and enforcement of the code are outlined. The similarities and differences between code of conduct and code of ethics are underscored while the causes and treatment of academic misconduct and ethical violations are discussed.