2 Why do we need Academic Integrity?
Academic Integrity is needed to:
- maintain fairness
- maintain trust and credibility
- develop respect for others
“Academic integrity is a guiding principle in education and a choice to act in a responsible way whereby others can have trust in us as individuals. It is the foundation for ethical decision-making and behavior in the production of legitimate, authentic and honest scholarly work.” (p.3 Academic integrity)
Senja videregående skole wishes to instill values and skills that promote personal integrity and good practice in teaching, learning and assessment. In practice, this means that the work you present as your own writing and thinking is indeed your own and, if you have used other people’s ideas and words, this is acknowledged. These ideas and words mean written, oral or electronic products including: text, visual, audio, graphic, artistic, lectures, interviews, conversations, letters, broadcasts, maps and similar. Ideas and thinking are intellectual property and therefore protected.
We know that our students come from diverse backgrounds academically and that we therefore need to pay attention to the principles of Academic Integrity at both beginner and advanced levels to prevent students from gaining an unfair advantage. The assessment of the students’ work is essential for evaluation. The evaluation is an important tool to measure the student’s knowledge and is used when students enter university, therefore the grading needs to be fair and reliable. Detecting malpractice and unfair advantages is important so that neither our grading nor our conduct are compromised.
All members of the school community have important roles in having and maintaining a school community with high standards that promote academic integrity.