12 February 2016, 12:12
"We need to create culture and infrastructure of academic integrity," said Lilia Hrynevych at the meeting with Counselor for Public Affairs of the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine Conrad Turner, employees of the Embassy and American Councils in charge of international education, which took place in the Committee on February 11, 2016.
The subject of the discussion was academic integrity, which is one of the necessary preconditions for ensuring the quality of education and reform of the higher education. With great enthusiasm the participants of the meeting were analyzing opportunities for future cooperation exactly in the field of academic integrity within the framework the project elaborated by the American Councils, which is expected to engage certain Ukrainian universities.
The participants arrived at a consensus concerning the concept of integrity when it comes to high school. Also, Conrad Turner said that the project aims to draw attention of Ukrainian students and teaching staff to a threatening situation caused by a lack of academic integrity and also to provide all involved in the process of learning with the necessary tools, skills and strategies to eradicate this phenomenon.
Moreover, according to those present, the lack of integrity includes not only plagiarism, cheating or bribing, but all the negative effects, including the use of technologies with unfair intentions and help to others to get the desired mark or result in an unfair way. Only using the systematic approach in the fight for academic integrity one can overcome the problem.
"It is creation of culture and infrastructure of academic integrity that is necessary for ensuring that the information on this part of the reform, as well as tools and mechanisms, be preserved and used in the process of teaching for development of and support to the environment of academic integrity. And the creation of a course of academic writing is undoubtedly one of the highly effective steps within the elaborated project," the Chairperson of the Committee summed up.