2nd Asia-Pacific Educational Integrity Conference
Invited Paper Abstract
Reinventing ethical education in Australia : Too ocker for honour?
Helen Marsden - University of South Australia
North American tertiary institutions have a long tradition of ‘honour codes' and research by McCabe and others over past decade has clearly shown that these codes are effective in reducing the rate of all types of cheating. Traditional honour codes are particularly effective in small colleges where a sense of community is easily fostered. These codes generally require students to individually pledge that they will not cheat in any way whilst they are members of the university community and, moreover, that they will report any student they suspect of engagement in dishonest academic practices. In traditional codes, the institution compliments the student's pledge by providing un-invigilated examinations. In recent years, most large campus American universities have adopted a modified version of the honour code. Whilst ‘modified-code' universities generally have invigilated examinations, the students at these universities have a significant role in the development and running of the honour system. In a few institutions, the code is entirely run by student representatives.
All Australian universities have academic misconduct policies, and there have been noteworthy moves in recent years to update these policies and specifically to wage war on plagiarism. Whilst acknowledging these gains, there has been a recent suggestion that Australian universities should consider the adoption of a Code of Honour in an effort to address the problem at a deeper level.
This paper discusses the proposal in terms of the overseas experience and the current state of play in this country.
