Academic Integrity in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) of Pakistan: Problems and Recommendations
Abstract
Academic integrity refers to the concept of ensuring moral standards and ethics in academia. The commitment and demonstration of moral values like honesty, trust and fair dealing in academic settings and contexts are the fundamentals of academic integrity. The International Center of Academic Integrity (ICAI) sets out five values to define academic integrity including honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility, and courage. This is a fact that higher levels of academic integrity consequently lead towards better academic standards and refinement of academic quality at higher education institutions (HEIs). The paper entails a qualitative approach and is based upon the past pertinent studies as well as the personal experiences of the authors in academia to discuss and evaluate the academic integrity in the context of Pakistani HEIs. The actions and practices which violate academic integrity constitute academic misconduct and adamic dishonesty. The malpractices may be done at the end of students, faculty or institutional authorities and HEIs administration. This paper discusses the problems and issues which undermine the academic integrity in HEIs encompassing the major issues including plagiarism, cheating in exams, contract cheating, collusion, facilitation and deceit among others. The paper also proposes the ways to address the issues of academic misconduct by suggesting measures and recommendations to curb the aspects of academic dishonesty by the students, faculty members and HEIs administrative staff.
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