A Conductive Alloy: A 'Whole Institution' Approach to Student (Mis)Conduct

Alexander, M. , Broad, J., Hutcheson, J. and Struan, A. (2023) A Conductive Alloy: A 'Whole Institution' Approach to Student (Mis)Conduct. In: International Conference on Education and New Developments (END 2023), Lisbon, Portugal, 24-26 Jun 2023, pp. 292-295. ISBN 9789893510636

Abstract

Student academic (mis)conduct is a source of significant organizational, strategic, and local risk, both to an educational institution and to the individual. While a university must uphold both its academic standards and its moral responsibilities, an individual student also needs to take responsibility for the originality of their work and the honesty of their degree outcome. The risk for a student can range from a lowered outcome to expulsion, while an academic institution lives or dies by its reputation. However, the general model of managing academic misconduct in a university setting is often fragmented and lacks clear ownership: often teaching and research staff educate their students on disciplinary standards, units for academic literacy provide centralized academic practice provision and can offer remedial support, and an academic standards division will manage the process of penalizing those students whose misconduct has been identified. The realities of large and complex academic institutions, often with high levels of devolved authority, often preclude a more holistic view. For example, at the stage of reprimand and redress, intentionality is not taken into account: a mistake in referencing or attribution without an intent to mislead is nonetheless still an instance of submitting the work of others for credit. This is a process issue often not appreciated fully by some academics involved in advising students, who focus on the idea of a student having planned or not to deceive a marker. Therefore, at the pre-offence stage, where a student is being inducted into new academic practices, care must be taken to bring the knowledge of the team in charge of imposing penalties directly into the process of training and advising students. In response to this, the present paper describes work undertaken at the University of Glasgow to develop a new integrated culture to tackle issues of academic integrity across the institution. We describe a partnership between colleagues in academic departments, our academic literacies/Learning Development team, our Student Conduct Team and colleagues from academic standards and policy to focus on a wide-view approach to student conduct, in order to shift the focus from reprimand and redress to ‘before the offence’. We therefore propose a joined-up model that brings together this centralized teaching of good academic practice, systems and processes managing academic misconduct cases, and academic staff working within subject areas. This model places academic integrity, ownership of responsibility, and good academic practice at the centre of the student experience.

• Item Type: Conference Proceedings
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Broad, Ms Jane and Hutcheson, Mrs Jenny and Alexander, Professor Marc and Struan, Dr Andrew
• Authors: Alexander, M., Broad, J., Hutcheson, J., and Struan, A.
• Subjects: L Education > L Education (General); L Education > LB Theory and practice of education; L Education > LB Theory and practice of education > LB2300 Higher Education
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Critical Studies > English Language and Linguistics; University Services > Student and Academic Services > Academic Services
• ISSN: 2184-1489
• ISBN: 9789893510636