Honour codes and their influence on academic integrity in engineering education

Abstract

The subject of academic dishonesty at colleges and universities is an old one. However, it is now increasingly believed to be an area of discussion and concern world-wide. Academic dishonesty takes many forms. These include plagiarism, cheating in examinations, contract cheating, etc. The causes of academic dishonesty include lack of awareness particularly in relation to plagiarism, student perceptions of peer behaviour, failure to integrity students into the academic community and financial, time or academic pressures, etc. Honour codes have for long been developed and implemented at colleges and universities in the USA. Honour codes include traditional or modified honour codes. Honour codes underline the core values of an institution and enable students to play a much bigger role to influence peer behaviour and to police academic misconduct. Honour codes promote holistic growth and development of students rather than focussing on the punitive nature of academic integrity policies per se. The work reported in this paper is based on a literature review and concludes that tackling academic dishonesty effectively at colleges and universities require a multi-pronged approach including implementation of the academic integrity policies, the honour code, creative pedagogical practices and a supportive approach to learning and development of students’ skills.