Saadia Mahmud

‘Teach us how to do it properly!’ An Australian academic integrity student survey

The results of a large online student survey (n = 15,304), on academic integrity at six Australian universities, indicate that a majority of respondents reported a good awareness of academic integrity and knowledge of academic integrity policy at their university and were satisfied with the information and support they receive. Response varied across cohorts, with international students expressing a lower awareness of academic integrity and academic integrity policy, and lower confidence in how to avoid academic integrity breaches. Postgraduate research student respondents were the least satisfied with the information they had received about how to avoid an academic integrity breach. The results from this survey provide an opportunity to explore the student perspective and inform the higher education sector in relation to communicating with and educating students about academic integrity. The students have indicated that Australian universities need to move beyond the mere provision of information to ensure a holistic approach that engages students about academic integrity.

Postgraduate Research Students and Academic Integrity: "It's about Good Research Training".

Findings from a study on academic integrity at Australian universities challenge the presumption that postgraduate research students have prior knowledge of academic integrity. A review of online academic integrity policy in 39 Australian universities found that one in five policies had no mention of higher degree by research (HDR) students. Despite each of the six universities in our study having an academic integrity policy for HDR students, one in five HDR student survey respondents said they had never heard of academic integrity, two in five said they did not know whether their university has an academic integrity policy, and among the student groups they were the least satisfied with the information they had received about how to avoid an academic integrity breach. We argue for support and training in academic integrity for HDR students and draw insights from the interviews with senior stakeholders on how this could be realised.

Integrity in Postgraduate Research: The Student Voice

There is a limited understanding of the student perspective of integrity in postgraduate research. This is of concern given that ‘research trainees’ may have a vulnerable position in formal investigations of research misconduct. This paper analyses qualitative data drawn from an Australian online academic integrity survey in a mixed methods research study. This analysis complements the quantitative survey data analysed earlier and sought to explore factors contributing to postgraduate research students’ satisfaction with policy and process, the ways institutions can support students’ understandings and practice, suggestions for improving breach processes, and students’ concerns. We found that integrity training and modelling of ethical behaviour by staff were key factors contributing to students’ satisfaction. Students would have liked more ‘hands-on’ integrity training, accompanied by consistent and transparent enforcement of policy. Respondents expressed concern about the credibility of research output and educational standards. We call for recommendations from the extensive literature on academic integrity policy and practice to be extended to the postgraduate research sphere.

Fostering Integrity in Postgraduate Research: An Evidence-Based Policy and Support Framework

Postgraduate research students have a unique position in the debate on integrity in research as students and novice researchers. To assess how far policies for integrity in postgraduate research meet the needs of students as “research trainees,” we reviewed online policies for integrity in postgraduate research at nine particular Australian universities against the Australian Code for Responsible Conduct of Research (the Code) and the five core elements of exemplary academic integrity policy identified by Bretag et al. (2011), i.e., access, approach, responsibility, detail, and support. We found inconsistency with the Code in the definition of research misconduct and a lack of adequate detail and support. Based on our analysis, previous research, and the literature, we propose a framework for policy and support for postgraduate research that encompasses a consistent and educative approach to integrity maintained across the university at all levels of scholarship and for all stakeholders.

Developing managerial understanding of self-organisation

The self-organisation process in a complex adaptive system (CAS) in the social world exhibits many different characteristics as opposed to the natural world or mechanical simulation. Our understanding is limited in the area of complexity sciences application to the social world. Based on research in three Australian SMEs, the author proposes to develop managerial understanding of self-organisation by classifying self-organisation in complex adaptive systems on the basis of agent behaviour and internal dynamics. The proposed classification distinguishes between self-organisation evident in the natural world and mechanical simulation from that evident in the social world.