5th Teaching & Education Conference, Amsterdam

ETHICAL STANDARDS AND ACADEMIC INTEGRITY IN TURKISH UNIVERSITY STRATEGIC PLANS

HARUN SERPIL

Abstract:

92 Turkish universities’ 4-year strategic plans for the 2015-2019 period were analyzed to see to what extent their SWOT analyses and institutional objectives incorporate upholding ethical values/standards and describe strategies to address academic integrity problems. While the majority of them (about 75%) identify maintaining high ethical standards as a weakness that must be remedied, only 5% of them present a detailed and consistent institutional plan with indicators on how to address the issue. 25% of the universities do not provide any strategic objectives or assessment regarding research ethics and academic integrity at all. Of those universities having clear ethical objectives, regulations and policies, most outline them only for students at the graduate level (for IRB purposes), but several also state the need for raising awareness on ethics and academic integrity for faculty and administrative staff as well. 5 of the universities have also been found to clearly relate their own ethical objectives and regulations to the strategic plans at the national level.

Keywords: Ethical standards, academic integrity, higher education policy, strategic plan

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