Academia – a noble institution that offers us a glimpse in a fully different, captivating, and incredible world. It stands tall from ages and has long proved that it can provide us with the means to succeed in an ever-changing world.
With academia comes the notion of academic integrity – or the belief teachers and students should act with ‘honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility.’
Breaking those beliefs, you can get yourself facing an academic integrity issue frequently known as academic misconduct. All university students are expected to follow academic integrity and breaching it may lead to issues with your reputation or can even cause you face academic problems and be expelled.
Most frequent causes of penalties associated with academic integrity come from:
- Plagiarism
- Recycling work
- Fabricating information
- Exam cheating
Avoiding Academic Integrity Issues Associated with Plagiarism
Plagiarism means submitting a work that is not your own without acknowledging that fact. To avoid such issues, make sure that whenever you do some project, whatever it is, you cite the sources and reference the original work you’ve taken notes of. This is valid for any kind of work you do – presentation, essay, paper, dissertation. You can also run your piece through a plagiarism checker software to make sure it’s not unintentionally similar to other writings on the Internet. Make sure to use quotations, references, and citations everywhere that is needed.
If you’re purchasing college papers, make sure you also run them through such software. Also check if they have the needed references and citations. Of course, you’d do better if you use your own work.
Avoiding Academic Integrity Problems Associated with Recycling Work
Or, another way to put it, submitting a work that’s already been assessed or graded. If you want to resubmit your first-year essay for your third-year assignment, for instance, make sure you have your professor’s green light. Whenever you want to build upon something you’ve made previously, always discuss it with your teachers and assistants.
Always Write Only True Information
Another place where you can face issues of academic integrity is if you try to fabricate work. Say, for instance, you need to write some report. To do it, you’d need to use data. If you don’t browse the sources and see the true stats but make up your own, that constitutes an issue for your academic integrity. So, always make sure you see relevant, reliable sources to avoid such scenarios. Don’t just put in some numbers, data, or whatever information you aren’t sure is true without checking it first.
Exam Cheating
Of course, this is a huge academic dishonesty. If you are ever not prepared for your exam, always better to discuss it with your professor or check whether you can take it on the next session. Or go, do your best, and hope it’s enough. Always avoid cheating or any activity that might be considered associated with cheating. After all, it’s not grades that matter the most – it’s whether you remember anything from your studies or not that is going to let you advance in your future career. Academic issues regarding exam cheating are huge and they might even lead to you being expelled. Avoid cheating even if you feel totally unprepared. Don’t check your phone during exams and don’t talk to other students, too. Those two acts might be interpreted as you trying to cheat and you certainly don’t want that. Count on yourself only during exams and any other tests.
How to Uphold Academic Integrity
To maintain an honest statute with your academic institution, you can follow some basic guidelines. For starters, always make sure to cite, reference, and quote sources whenever necessary. Don’t try to cheat on exams and avoid any activity that might be considered cheating. Be fair and don’t make up numbers, facts, statistics, and other similar material. Abide by the copyright laws and by the privacy laws, too. Do things in the ‘ethical’ manner and try to act on your best behavior to support the notion of academic honesty and integrity.
Statistics on Current Issues in Academic Integrity
According to The Educational Testing Service, nowadays the percent of college students who’ve admitted they’ve cheated during their schooling career has risen up to 75-98%. A survey of 70,000 students that lasted from 2002 to 2015 found that 95% of them admitted to cheating in some form.
A CollegeHumor’s survey among 30,000 respondents found that 60.8% of the college students admitted to have performed some sort of cheating with 16.5% of them not feeling guilty about it. Another study by Rutgers University estimated that 68% of the polled students have done some act of academic dishonesty.[1]
Preventing Cheating
The measures taken for preventing cheating are rising. Of course, no phones are allowed but sometimes institutions take it up a notch and use devices to make sure there’d be no cell connection. Of course, this isn’t done everywhere and all the time. There are other measures, thought, and some of them include cameras. Of course, students are usually spread in a way that doesn’t allow them to see each other’s answers. Such and other measures have been taken to prevent cheating.
Integrity College Solutions
Usually, the solutions taken by colleges are some of the above measures that allow to prevent exam cheating. Many institutions are also applying plagiarism checker software to make sure you’d not turn in something that already exists in the Internet space. Information and sources can be checked to ensure they are true.
Conclusion
According to 10News, academic integrity issues might turn out to be an even bigger problem in the future. Notions of what is right and what is wrong are somewhat skewed when you’re pressed by the time and you have to take an exam tomorrow. But it’s always best to uphold to academical standards because otherwise you can ruin your reputation now and in the future. Try to make sure you’re the best student you can be not only in terms of grades and final GPA but also in terms of how you conduct yourself with respect to your studies.
