Guidelines on Developing Effective Academic Integrity Policies: A Comprehensive Guide for Higher Education Institutions
Description:
The “Guidelines on Developing Effective Academic Integrity Policies” is a comprehensive, evidence-based framework created by the FAITH Project for higher education institutions. It serves as a reference to help institutions design, implement, and maintain academic integrity policies that are clear, accessible, and contextually relevant. You can expect the document to cover a wide range of topics from defining the scope, structure, and language of policies to integrating academic integrity into curricula, establishing fair reporting and investigation procedures, and leveraging supportive tools and technologies. While it provides research-backed highlights, it is intended as a flexible guide. Its recommendations should be adapted to meet the unique needs and contexts of each institution.
Development Process of the Guidelines:
Ensuring academic integrity is a cornerstone of higher education, necessitating well-defined and evidence-based policy guidelines. The development of these guidelines followed a structured and rigorous process to establish a comprehensive framework for institutions to uphold academic integrity effectively.
The process began with a systematic literature review to explore the academic integrity policy research landscape. A total of 29 studies were identified, and a thematic analysis was conducted to examine key components of academic integrity policies. During the coding process, team members documented how codes were defined and interpreted in the studies. These codes were then grouped under broader themes, which formed the main structure of the guidelines, while the codes themselves became subcomponents within each theme.
Using the insights gathered, the team drafted the initial text of the guidelines. This was followed by a rigorous revision process, where academic integrity experts, with specialized knowledge in policy development, refined the document through six iterative revision cycles. Each cycle helped enhance clarity, coherence, and applicability, ensuring the final guidelines provide a robust and practical framework for academic institutions.
These guidelines are principally designed to support those responsible for developing and maintaining institutional policies relating to academic and research integrity.
In addition, because academic integrity is everyone’s responsibility, the guidelines are relevant to and need to be accessible to all stakeholders in education, both within and external to institutions. External stakeholders include national, regional and local government departments, professional bodies, accreditation agencies, quality bodies, ombudspersons, student associations, external examiners and auditors.
There are five parts to the guidelines, as follows:
Part 1: Policy Scope, Structure and Accessibility
Part 2: Policy Promotion, Education & Integration
Part 3: Policy Implementation & Procedures
Part 4: Monitoring and Oversight
Part 5: Tools and Support
Contributors: Irene Glendinning, Özgür Çelik, Shiva Subramaniam, Dita Henek Dlabolová, Ece Zehir Topkaya, Kadriye Aksoy Pekacar, Oliver Trevisiol, Salim Razı
Disclaimer: This work is a part of the Facing Academic Integrity Threats Project and co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union. The European Commission’s support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. Supporting images in this publication were generated using Google Labs Image FX. Additionally, ChatGPT was utilized for language improvement to enhance readability.