Academic Integrity Policy Development and Revision: A Canadian Perspective
Date
2020-12-30
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Abstract
This guest lecture was presented to YİDE6051 - Academic Integrity Policies, PhD course, taught by: Dr. Salim Razi, Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Turkey.
Purpose: The goals of this project are: (1) Identify existing components of academic integrity policies and procedures related to contract cheating; (2) identify gaps in existing academic integrity policies and procedures related to contract cheating; (3) evaluate the policies and procedures against existing standards for post-secondary education policy; (4) compare supports available for undergraduate students and graduate students; and (5) develop and communicate recommendations for policy reform. The research question that informs this study is: How do post-secondary institutions in Canada address contract cheating in their academic integrity policies and related documents?
Methods: We used a qualitative policy analysis, using Bretag et al.’s (2011) five core elements (access, approach, responsibility, detail, and support) of exemplary academic integrity policy as a framework for analysis. Policy documents were collected through public websites of publicly-funded colleges and universities in Canada (n=67).
Results: Policies from post-secondary institutions in five Canadian provinces (British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario) have been analyzed thus far. These include publicly-funded colleges (n=22) (Ontario) and universities (n=45). Results showed that policies lacked consistency and fewer than 5% (n=3) used the term “contract cheating” explicitly. None of the policies could be considered exemplary according to the Bretag et al. (2011) framework.
Implications: There is a need for Canadian higher education institutions to improve their academic integrity policies to address contract cheating more explicitly and also to focus on providing more educational supports to students to learn how to uphold academic integrity at their respective institutions.
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Keywords
academic integrity, Canada, academic misconduct, policy
Citation
Eaton, S. E. (2020). Academic Integrity Policy Development and Revision: A Canadian Perspective. pp. 1-19.