Understanding Academic and Professional Integrity

This document provides an overview of academic and professional integrity, including its definition, importance, and application in the education and industry sectors. It discusses the consequences of dishonest behavior, the role of integrity in building trust and achieving success, and the need for ethical guidelines in organizations and educational institutions. The document also highlights the growing emphasis on integrity in modern times and the value placed on academic integrity.

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Name of the University
Name of the Student
Author Note

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Definition of academic and professional integrity
A student in college, university or school should refer to academic and professional
integrity policy. All kinds of deceitfulness including cheating, plagiarism or disruption in
teaching leads to permanent suspending or terminating of the individual (Macfarlane, Zhang
and Pun 2014). Academic and professional integrity is the key to any teaching and learning
process. Professional integrity defines the professional who remains aligned with the
guidelines of the mission of a chosen profession in a consistent manner. The obligation of
such people is based on a Code of Ethics by following rules and regulations. Professional
integrity can be applied at a workplace and thus the meaning of professional integrity at the
workplace refers to the rules and regulations that need to be followed. The things undertaken
by a professional includes creating a policy related to work ethics or restricting any unethical
practices such as discrimination at the workplace. This helps in maintaining professional code
of conduct at the workplace. Moral behavior is the foundation stone of any educational
community. Some of the forbidden behavior including cheating in examinations such as
replication from another copy of the student, allowing other student to copy, using of study
devices like cheat sheets or any material provided by the professor in the class, use of mobile
to search for any information, buying or selling of examination paper without consent and
unofficial collaboration with students to take assignments home. Plagiarism is another
offensive activity that includes copying of other’s thoughts or ideas or submitting their
original work in the assignment. Copying others sources or citation in the assignment or
submitting one’s own task again is also an act of plagiarism. Using of false sources and
citations is also an offensive act in the policy. Submitting fake or false data on research or
assignment or any information provided to the university is prohibited and leads to serious
consequences.

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Importance of academic and professional integrity
Having integrity and honesty means considering principles and believing in standards
of the society and implementing those principles (Mahmud and Bretag 2013). Having an
academic and professional integrity is vital for many reasons. It means that the people can
trust or rely on others with whom they work with. People believe that whatever others do is
right and do it honestly. Since, the world is based on faith; trust is one of the key factors of a
successful leader. It is important to develop good habits at an early stage so that the students
do not face ethical issues at the workplace. Employers tend to prefer hire someone who has a
high academic integrity and can add positive influence in the organization as well as the
employees and fulfill the mission and vision of the company. Academic integrity is also
important because it gives peace of mind knowing that the person is doing the right thing. By
being honest and believing in principles and values, it reduces lot of stress and anxiety and
makes a person happier and much more satisfied and productive. The type of integrity that is
analysed includes frankness and scientific honesty which is considered as the best policy at a
workplace. Therefore, it can be said that this type of integrity can help in the development of
professional ethics and bring about positivity in an organisation.
Application of academic and professional integrity in the education and industry
sector
As mentioned above, academic and professional integrity involves communicating
knowledge and information in an ethical and accountable manner with following values and
principles (Busch and Bilgin 2014). The education committee should have policies to take
action against underlying causes breaches against misconduct and integrity in the condition of
education. Students should be ready to accept and read the documents paper for academic
integrity and bide to it. The Universities must have systematic internal procedure to carry out
proper maintenance of academic integrity. All students and employees should abide by the

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policy and any misconduct will lead to strict actions or permanent expel from the college
ruining his or her individual career. Similarly, industry sectors follow corporate social
responsibility and business ethics so that everyone is aligned to the business goals and
objectives. As employees in an organization break rules and do not follow the morals of the
company, it is vital for the company to set certain guidelines and code of conduct for honesty
and integrity. It is the responsibility of the HR manager and compliance officer to implement
the values and ensure employees are abiding by those rules. An organization would hire
someone with honesty and integrity that sets an example for other also. Therefore, it is vital
for the leaders also to follow the path of integrity s that his or her subordinates can learn from
him. Any employee found to be conducting non-compliance task in the workplace, should be
expelled or dismissed from the organization and harsh legal action should be taken against
him. Thus, integrity and honesty is significant for individual and career growth.
Understanding of academic and professional integrity
Academic and professional integrity is essential to run a business or an educational
sector. Without implementing standards or ethical guidelines, nobody will follow the path of
success with truth and respect and achieve goals by misconduct (Ryan et al. 2013). Earlier,
much emphasis was not given on integrity and honesty as organizations were more focused
on achieving goals rather than on its employees. According to recent finding, nowadays
organizations and education sectors tend to focus more on business ethics and morals and
research on the ways of doing so. In the modern century, individuals in any sector or any
place have become dishonest and try to o for short cuts to achieve success rather than
following the way to honesty. Competition is huge in today’s world between people and
everybody tends to achieve the first position that requires lot of hard work and patience.
Therefore, they tend to conduct breaches and misconduct for accomplishment of goals. This,
it has become very important for all the industry and education sectors to apprehend and

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implement these ethical guidelines so that they can carry out their behavior in the future also
as people are investing their time and effort which should be appreciated. They should not
face any problem while working somewhere else with other people. Therefore, understanding
of academic integrity has been gown and developed in recent times and valued more than the
previous times.

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References
Busch, P. and Bilgin, A., 2014. Student and staff understanding and reaction: Academic
integrity in an Australian university. Journal of Academic Ethics, 12(3), pp.227-243.
Cleary, M., Walter, G., Horsfall, J. and Jackson, D., 2013. Promoting integrity in the
workplace: A priority for all academic health professionals. Contemporary
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Crimmins, G., Nash, G., Oprescu, F., Alla, K., Brock, G., Hickson-Jamieson, B. and Noakes,
C., 2016. Can a systematic assessment moderation process assure the quality and
integrity of assessment practice while supporting the professional development of
casual academics?. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 41(3), pp.427-441.
Macfarlane, B., Zhang, J. and Pun, A., 2014. Academic integrity: a review of the
literature. Studies in Higher Education, 39(2), pp.339-358.
Mahmud, S. and Bretag, T., 2013. Postgraduate research students and academic integrity:‘It's
about good research training’. Journal of Higher Education Policy and
Management, 35(4), pp.432-443.
Ryan, S., Burgess, J., Connell, J. and Groen, E., 2013. Casual academic staff in an Australian
university: Marginalised and excluded. Tertiary Education and Management, 19(2),
pp.161-175.
Van Den Hoonaard, W.C., 2013. The social and policy contexts of the New Brunswick
Declaration on Research Ethics, Integrity, and Governance: A commentary. Journal
of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics, 8(2), pp.104-109.

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