10/07/2024

Preserving Academic Integrity in Universities Goes Beyond the Classroom

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Image: Universidad de Monterrey (Translation: Be consistent with your values and an example of integrity for the world)

One of the most common ideas we hear about the importance of academic integrity is that university students who study with academic honesty truly learn the knowledge and develop the skills that their programs intend to teach them—and this couldn’t be more true. But I’d like to focus on a complementary idea: students who act with academic integrity often become professionals who act ethically in their careers.

The relatively recent rise of generative artificial intelligence (AI) has put the spotlight back on the risks of unethical use of technology, and the academic community (faculty and staff alike) has turned to experts on academic integrity asking: How do we protect academic integrity in the age of AI? What technological tools exist to identify AI-assisted texts, images, videos, and other academic deliverables as a potential “magic” solution?

As a professor of Sustainability and Social Responsibility in UDEM’s Business School, I had an interesting conversation with a student just a few days ago. I suspected she had used ChatGPT without authorization to complete her midterm exam. When I spoke with her, she explained that while she hadn’t used AI for the exam itself, she had used it for previous assignments I had authorized as resources for the exam, and this may have influenced her answers. Our conversation became fascinating as we traced her steps and confirmed her testimony. She even showed me her professional ChatGPT account, which she uses to assist with academic work and projects in the construction company where she works. The matter was solved when she was able to explain the real-world projects she had proposed to make her work environment more sustainable, which is exactly the objective of the course I teach.

The takeaway? As we discussed at the XII International Congress on Academic Integrity held at UDEM a few weeks ago, we need to design learning experiences and assessment tools that take into account technological progress. Our university students are already using AI, and we should encourage it—banning it would be as utopian as harmful.

The solution to academic dishonesty—whether it’s plagiarism, identity fraud in distance education, buying essays with the rise of contract-cheating businesses, or unauthorized use of AI—lies in building a culture of academic integrity. And this only happens when academic institutions design and implement strong integrity programs according to international standards.

This connects to the central idea of this blog: having such a program not only alleviates the ethical dilemmas related to teaching and learning, it also strengthens ethical decision-making in broader contexts and extends into professional life. In short, building a culture of academic integrity can be an effective strategy for promoting moral development.

One of the key findings of my doctoral research suggests that ethical behaviour in the workplace can be predicted by three factors: a person’s academic integrity as a university student, their perception of the quality of their company’s ethics program, and their rejection of dishonesty, combined with their years of professional experience. So, if we want professionals who...
• Diligently fulfill their job responsibilities,
• Avoid conflicts of interest,
• Report their results transparently,
• Admit their mistakes,
• Treat their colleagues with respect,
• Give credit,
• Call out dishonest behaviour...

We need students who...
• Do their academic work with dedication and a desire to learn, including using technological tools (just like calculators and search engines were once new, now it’s AI),
• Acknowledge original work and cite correctly,
• Collaborate fairly in group projects,
• Take responsibility for their actions,
• Avoid contributing to any form of cheating,
• Report dishonest acts.

Academic integrity should matter to far more people than just university professors!

References:
Guerrero-Dib, J. G. (2020). Relación entre la integridad académica universitaria y el comportamiento ético en el entorno laboral. Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey. https://hdl.handle.net/11285/636866 
Guerrero-Dib, J. G., Portales, L., & Gallego, D. (2023). Academic Integrity as a Way to Promote Workplace Ethical Behaviour. In: Curtis, G.J. (eds) Academic Integrity in the Social Sciences. Ethics and Integrity in Educational Contexts, vol 6. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-43292-7_11
Guerrero-Dib, J. G., Portales, L., & Heredia-Escorza, Y. (2020). Impact of academic integrity on workplace ethical behaviour. International Journal for Educational Integrity, 16(1), 2. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40979-020-0051-3

(Note: The author used AI to assist translation from Spanish to English)

The author’s views are their own.

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