Academic Misconduct in Higher Education

Academic Misconduct in Higher Education
Name
Institutional Affiliate
Academic Misconduct in Higher Education
Academic Misconduct in Higher Education Introduction Recent outbursts in Australia on the rampant cases of contract cheating in the country's higher education highlighted a growing concern about the quality of education and students graduating from their institutions of higher learning. Australian researchers estimate that approximately 150,000 students across the country's universities have cheated in their studies (Duffy, 2020). The scourge of academic misconduct elicited a widespread rebuke from government stakeholders. The policymakers called for the development and implementation of stringent measures for safeguarding the reputations of their prided institutions of higher learning. The government, for instance, enacted policies criminalizing particular forms of academic misconduct, such as contract cheating and student impersonation (Duffy, 2020). Another response to academic misconduct in Australia was a nationwide crackdown on online platforms offering assignment help or essay writing services to students at a fee. The Australian government's reaction to the outburst prompts an evaluation of the issue of academic misconduct in the country's industry of higher education. Academic misconduct refers to any action or behavior that undermines the values of honesty, trust, fairness, respect, and responsibility in learning, teaching, and research in one's studies (TEQSA, 2022). In essence, academic misconduct betrays the academic integrity of students, teaching staff, higher learning institutions, and the higher education industry. It creates a bad reputation for the entire higher education sector, whose graduates are likely to be considered incompetent to deliver in their future positions in the country's workforce. The students would also be unqualified to continue exercising the right to explore their respective disciplines (Bretag, Contract cheating in Australian higher education: a comparison of non-university higher education providers and universities, 2019). Australia's higher education sector serves to achieve critical outcomes that transcend the common notion of preparing students for the job market. Among its essential purposes include inspiring and empowering individuals or students to achieve their highest potential in developing their knowledge and skills, enabling individuals to embrace learning as a lifetime process, and assisting in the application of acquired knowledge and skills toward sustainable growth and development of the country's economy (Stevensonclarke, 2011). The higher education sector also purposes to enhance the flexibility of individuals to adapt and learn the demands of the emerging trends across the social, political, and economic spectrum (Stevensonclarke, 2011). The industry further contributes to maintaining a civilized and democratic society that embraces diversity and the underlying principles or ideologies that promote the country's social identity (Bretag, Contract cheating in Australian higher education: a comparison of non-university higher education providers and universities, 2019). The highlighted purposes of Australia's higher education sector depend on its ability to mitigate academic misconduct, thus emphasizing the need for all students to uphold the outlined tenets of academic integrity in their studies. Academic misconduct undermines the essence of Australia's higher education sector, with adverse repercussions cutting across Australian society's social, political, and economic domains. Lack of academic integrity may, for instance, result in an incompetent workforce limiting sustainable growth and development of the economy, intolerance to diversity due to lack of understanding among individuals, and even poor governance due to a lack of integrity to question the implementation of policies. In partnership with relevant authorities such as Universities Australia (UA), the Australian government has established set standards and principles to guide the institutions of higher learning against academic misconduct (Universities Australia, 2017). The guidelines are characteristic of legislative policies and other supporting frameworks that uphold academic integrity as an integral higher education standard to be embraced across the board of all higher learning institutions. Among such stipulations include the policies enshrined in the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Act 2011 (TEQSA), THE Higher Education Standards Framework 2015, and the Australian Code for Responsible Conduct of Research 2007 (Harper R. B., 2018). Individual institutions of higher learning in Australia use the guidelines presented in the policy frameworks to develop their academic integrity policies and practices. The proposed policy guidelines and procedures embraced at the institutional levels initially focused on addressing the most prevalent academic misconduct, plagiarism. However, technological advances have led to the mutation of academic misconduct in higher education, thus demanding an updated approach to curbing emerging threats to the country's higher education sector (Birks, 2020). Thus, this project explores the manifestation of academic misconduct in the Australian higher education sector, its implications, the efficacy of existing policies and other frameworks in mitigating the issue, and the underlying factors perpetuating academic misconduct in the vital industry. The project will also provide recommendations for best practices to address the problem and uphold the country's good reputation for its high-quality standards for higher education. Research Question             How can the government, in partnership with other stakeholders, address academic misconduct amidst the increasing use of advanced technologies to undermine the academic integrity of Australia's higher education industry? Research Objectives             The research project aims to unveil the scope of academic misconduct in Australia's higher education, its diverse manifestations in institutions of higher learning, its implications, and the underlying factors leading to the undermining of the industry's set standards of academic integrity. The project also highlights the existing policy frameworks and practices for curbing academic misconduct or upholding academic integrity in Australia's higher education and their efficacy in executing the mandate. The research suggests recommendations for appropriate measures to address the emerging factors influencing academic misconduct in the country's higher education sector. Significance of the Research Academic misconduct is on the rise across the developed world, with countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia recently raising the alarm over its negative implications on their higher education sectors (Harper R. B., 2020). Policymakers in Australia voiced their concerns over the high rates of contract cheating on online platforms where students acquired assignment help and essay writing services (Harper R. B., 2018). They hailed the online platforms as lucrative businesses for jobless graduates in developing countries that offer such services at different prices based on the urgency and quantity of work on the assignments or research papers (Rowland, 2018). Advances in technology have led to the...