Examining The State of Academic Integrity in Europe - University Politehnica of Bucharest, Romania - 27 June 2017

Dr. Thomas Lancaster
http://thomaslancaster.co.uk
Twitter: @DrLancaster1
Examining The State of
Academic Integrity in
Europe
Presented by Dr. Thomas Lancaster
from Staffordshire University, Stoke-on-Trent, United Kingdom
Presented at University Politehnica of Bucharest, Romania
on Tuesday, 27 June 2017

Presentation Background

Areas For Consideration
What do we mean by academic integrity and how does a lack
of academic integrity manifest itself?
What recent evidence do we have about academic integrity in
Europe?
Based on the evidence, what are some of the main challenges
for academic integrity in Europe?
What positive academic integrity initiatives can we draw
upon?

About Dr. Thomas Lancaster
Professional
Interests
Academic
(Computer Science)
(Associate Dean)
Social Media
Enthusiast
(@DrLancaster)
Media Speaker Researcher
Email: thomas@thomaslancaster.co.uk
Website/Blog: http://thomaslancaster.co.uk
Slides: https://www.slideshare.net/thomaslancaster

Academic Integrity
Research Interests
A red card to student cheating?
Contract cheating
Students paying ghost writers to complete their work
Plagiarism prevention and detection
PhD “Effective and Efficient Plagiarism Detection”
Emerging areas of student cheating
Such as exam cheating technologies and smart drugs
Collaborative research with staff and students

Academic Integrity

The importance and reach
of academic integrity is
not well understood in
education

The Terms People Think About
“academic integrity” 495,000 results
“plagiarism” 30,500,000 results
“academic misconduct” 408,000 results
“cheat exam” 5,440,000
Searches on Google (UK)
June 2016

How Should We View Academic Integrity?
Negative
committed plagiarism
took research shortcuts
stole exam paper
Positive
acted with ethics
marked work fairly
led others by example

Academic Integrity
(my rough definition)
The set of core values and
principles that underpin the
activities of universities

Do we want to reward
academic integrity?
Do we want to punish a lack
of academic integrity?

Academic Integrity in Romania

Tweets from Plagiarism Across Europe and Beyond
Conference 2017
(24 - 26 May 2017, Brno, Czech Republic)
https://plagiarism.pefka.mendelu.cz

Impact of Policies for Plagiarism in Higher
Education Across Europe (IPPHEAE)
Council of Europe funded project, which ran between from 2010 to 2013
Part of Pan-European Platform on Ethics, Transparency and Integrity in
Education (ETINED) platform
The 27 countries included were:
(1) Austria, (2) Belgium, (3) Bulgaria, (4) Cyprus, (5) Czech Republic, (6)
Germany, (7) Denmark, (8) Estonia, (9) Finland, (10) France, (11) Greece, (12)
Hungary, (13) Ireland, (14) Italy, (15) Latvia, (16) Lithuania, (17) Luxembourg,
(18) Malta, (19) Holland, (20) Poland, (21) Portugal, (22) Romania, (23)
Slovakia, (24) Slovenia, (25) Spain, (26) Sweden, (27) United Kingdom
http://plagiarism.cz/ippheae

IPPHEAE Findings
Academic integrity policies inconsistent and lacking in maturity
Some countries denied that they had any issues with academic
integrity
Students showed that they were open to operating in a corrupt
society
Some good practice in every country, mostly led by individual
academics
More work to do in every country

IPPHEAE Romania
Exam based system
(most commonly, 60% of
assessment through exams)
32% of students and 46% of
teachers believed there
would be no
consequences for
plagiarising in an
assignmentDr. Irene Glendinning

Many of the findings for
Romania are very close to the
results from our most recent
SEEPPAI research

Quote From A Teacher in Romania
“I think sometimes it is accidental,
students have not been explained to
about citation rules, or done lots of
reading. Need to teach them not to
plagiarise.”

South East European Project
on Policies for Academic
Integrity (SEEPPAI)

South East European Project on Policies
for Academic Integrity (SEEPPAI)
A further Council of Europe supported project, with data collected between
October and December 2016
Study title reflective of the sector move from discussing plagiarism to
thinking about academic integrity
The countries involved were:
(1) Albania
(2) Bosnia and Herzegovina
(3) Croatia
(4) Montenegro
(5) the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
(6) Serbia
http://www.plagiarism.cz/seeppai

SEEPPAI Project Team Members
Czech Republic SEEPPAI Leads
(representing Mendel University in Brno, Czech
Republic)
Support for Mendel University
team
United Kingdom SEEPPAI Leads
(representing Coventry University, United Kingdom)
Tomáš Foltýnek Ben Calhoun
(from Webster Vienna Private
University, Austria)
Irene Glendinning
Dita Dlabolova Tetyana Kapet Thomas Lancaster
(now at Staffordshire University,
United Kingdom)
Dana Linkeschova
(from Brno University of
Technology)

Final SEEPPAI Report
http://www.plagiarism.cz/seeppai
Plagiarism Across Europe and Beyond Conference Paper
(24 - 26 May 2017, Brno, Czech Republic)
https://plagiarism.pefka.mendelu.cz
Two main
SEEPPAI
resources
released
so far
(plus slides from
presentations and
further papers to
follow)

Data Collection
(through live visits and online surveys)
Total Number
Student Surveys 460
Teacher Surveys 255
Higher Education Management Surveys 15
Student Focus Groups 13
Interviews and Group Discussions
(Teachers, Managers, National Representatives)
24
Visits included
a range of
workshops,
focus groups,
discussions
and interviews

Issues found largely consistent across the
SE Europe region (and further, also
reflective of IPPHEAE)
Some emerging trends in student cheating
identified
Headline Results

0.00
5.00
10.00
15.00
20.00
25.00
UK
Austria
Sweden
IrishRep
Malta
Slovakia
Cyprus
Finland
Netherlands
CzechRep
Slovenia
Denmark
Belgium
Bosnia&Herz
Estonia
Greece
Lithuania
Macedonia
Croatia
Poland
Albania
Portugal
Latvia
Serbia
Germany
Hungary
Romania
Spain
France
Italy
Luxembourg
Montenegro
Bulgaria
Research
Training
Knowledge
Communication
Prevention
Software
Sanctions
Policies
Transparency
Academic Integrity Maturity Model
Model developed by Dr. Irene Glendinning
Results include 33 IPPHEAE and SEEPPAI countries

Challenges Identified From
SEEPPAI Research

Academic Autonomy
Little monitoring of academic decisions
Second marking and moderation uncommon
Academic integrity policies often not defined
Where academic integrity policies defined, these are often
not followed

Exam Cheating
Reuse of exam questions
Inadequate invigilation of exams
Room layouts allowing students to see other
answers
Third parties available to hire, providing
answers through hidden earpieces

Student Comments From SEEPPAI Focus
Groups
“We have teachers who even don’t
read the papers. One teacher slept
on the exam!”
“I have experienced one or two
cases when students were caught
cheating, and the professors just
tell them to stop looking at the
other person’s paper, and that’s
it.”

Groups
“If you open Buzzfeed or something
you will find a hundred articles on how
to cheat, like you will find articles about
pens or watches… people put a lot of
thought into [exam] cheating.”

Contract Cheating
Ghost writing services offering to complete work for
students widely advertised
Students themselves said they were writing assignments
for other students

Groups
“There are Facebook groups
where you can hire someone.
There are numbers in the
bathroom stalls for writing
seminars”
“I wrote many works for other
students, also at high school, it’s
very often”

Penalties
Penalties for academic misconduct said to be lenient,
inconsistently applied and not a deterrent
Very difficult to delay the progress of a student
Almost impossible to remove a student from a course

What Action Would Be Taken Against A
Student Who Plagiarised In An Assessment?
Students Teachers
No action would be taken 23% 25%
Warning (informal or formal) or exposing to community 53% 60%
Rewrite the assignment or new assignment or zero mark 66% 70%
Repeat the subject or year or temporary suspension 39% 31%
Expel from the institution 7% 2%

Groups
“Many students just go
through college to get a
job, and the punishments
aren’t strict enough”

Cultural Challenges
Wider cultures identified that support bribery and
corruption, with these issues also seen in education
In some countries, over 80% of young people find they have
to university, otherwise they would be unemployed
Overall focus is on penalties, rather than promoting integrity

Groups
“There are a few professors
who are known for taking
money to let students pass
exams.”

Education
Teachers assume that students know about academic
writing and referencing
Students lack support on avoiding plagiarism
Staff lack continued professional development

Results From Survey Of Teachers
87.2% of teachers agreed that there should be more training
for students on avoiding plagiarism and academic dishonesty
80.3% of teachers agreed that there should be more training
for teachers on avoiding plagiarism and academic dishonesty
87.5% of teachers said there is no training provided for people
involved in making decisions on academic misconduct and
penalties

What Do Students Find Most Challenging
About Academic Writing?
Students Teachers
Finding good quality sources 73% 17%
Referencing and citation 26% 19%
Paraphrasing 23% 13%
Understanding different referencing formats and styles 16% 8%
Time management 16% 5%
Language skills 16% 15%
Tackling cultural differences 6% 2%
Building a critical argument with evidence 32% 21%
Other 4% 1%

Groups
“Maybe it’s the mistake of
teachers and professors? They
don’t teach students how to write
proper work.”
“A good measure, professors should
give students someone else’s
essays. In that way, students should
see how they should write it. They
are reading textbooks and essays of
professors but the texts are too
good for students. So students lose
their self-confidence.”

SEEPPAI Good Practice

Internationalisation
Institutions had developed strong ties with international
universities and adopted their codes of practice
Teaching assistants provided with the opportunity to study
abroad, bringing good practice back with them

Deterrence
Students required to submit a signed ethical statement
before taking exams
Universities and individual academics had adopted text
matching tools to identify plagiarism
Only students with a clear academic integrity record entitled
to grants

Assessment
Spoken exams were used to check that students
understood their subject
Exam room layouts set up to make cheating difficult
Cameras used to record activity in exam rooms

Education
Institutions having pages on their web site relating to ethics
Teachers delivering writing courses showing students how
to write and structure essays for their particular subject
Guest speaker programmes offered to provide a more
enriching and motivating experience for students

SEEPPAI Recommendations

A Multi-Levelled Approach
Academic integrity needs to be addressed all levels
from National Government support through to individual
teachers and students
Institutions to be encouraged to develop international links
(and supported with this process)
Local research to be encouraged through small grants

Policies and Processes
Guidance to be provided from National Government, along with
quality process monitoring
Institutions to instigate internal review of processes and
practices, including standard penalties
Guidelines to be developed for students and teachers,
supported by training
All parties to commit to handling academic misconduct cases
through official university processes

Teaching and Assessment
Teaching methods to be reviewed to discourage rote
learning
Preventative measures, such as the use of software tools,
to be integrated into assessment
Staff to work with students as partners to improve teaching
and to ensure that students see the value in their studies

Groups
“It is better to
plagiarise good ideas
then to create bad
ones”
Do we agree?

All parties need to take personal
responsibility for integrity
And commit to such integrity in
their professional and personal
lives

For More Information

Connect With Thomas Lancaster
(Speaking, PhD Supervision, Collaborations)
Email: thomas@thomaslancaster.co.uk
Website: http://thomaslancaster.co.uk
Blog: http://thomaslancaster.co.uk/blog
LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/thomaslancaster
Twitter: @DrLancaster
Slides available at http://www.slideshare.net/ThomasLancaster Drawing courtesy of Lesley Imgart
http://www.lesleyimgart.com

Selected Academic Integrity References
Lancaster, T. and Clarke, R. (2017), Rethinking Assessment By Examination In The Age Of Contract Cheating, Plagiarism Across Europe and Beyond 2017.
Glendinning, I., Foltýnek, T., Dlabolová, D., Linkeschová, D. and Lancaster, T. (2017), Exploring Issues Challenging Academic Integrity in South East Europe, Plagiarism Across Europe
and Beyond 2017.
Lancaster, T. and Clarke, R. (2016). Contract Cheating – The Outsourcing Of Assessed Student Work, in Handbook of Academic Integrity, Bretag, T. (editor): SpringerReference.
Hersey, C. and Lancaster, T. (2015). The Online Industry of Paper Mills, Contract Cheating Services, and Auction Sites, Clute Institute International Education Conference, London, June
2015.
Lancaster, T. and Clarke, R. (2014). Using Turnitin As A Tool For Attribution In Cases Of Contract Cheating; 3rd Annual Higher Education Academy Conference in Science, Technology,
Engineering and Mathematics, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, April 2014.
Clarke, R. and Lancaster, T. (2013). Commercial Aspects Of Contract Cheating; 8th Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, University of Kent,
Canterbury, UK, July 2013.
Lancaster, T. (2013), The Use of Text Matching Tools For The Prevention And Detection of Student Plagiarism; in Plagiarism Phenomenon In Europe: Research Contributes To Prevention,
Dias, P. and Bastos, A. (editors): Braga: Aletheia - Associação Científica e Cultural da Faculdade de Filosofia da Universidade Católica Portuguesa.
Lancaster, T and Clarke, R (2012). Dealing With Contract Cheating: A Question Of Attribution; 1st Annual Higher Education Academy Conference in Science, Technology, Engineering and
Mathematics, Imperial College, London, April 2012.
Clarke, R, and Lancaster, T (2007). Establishing a Systematic Six-Stage Process for Detecting Contract Cheating; The Second International Conference on Pervasive Computing and
Applications, Birmingham City University, July 2007.
Lancaster, T and Clarke, R (2007). Assessing Contract Cheating Through Auction Sites – A Computing Perspective; 8th Annual Higher Education Academy Conference in Information
and Computer Sciences, University of Southampton, August 2007.
Lancaster, T and Clarke, R (2007). The Phenomena of Contract Cheating, in Student Plagiarism in an Online World: Problems and solutions, Roberts, T. S. (editor), Hershey, Pennsylvania,
USA: Idea Group Inc.
Clarke, R and Lancaster, T (2006). Eliminating The Successor To Plagiarism? Identifying The Usage Of Contract Cheating Sites; 2nd Plagiarism: Prevention, Practice and Policy
Conference 2006 - Newcastle, UK, June 2006.
Lancaster T. and Culwin F. (2004), A Comparison of Source Code Plagiarism Detection Engines. Journal of Computer Science Education 14.2.
Culwin F. and Lancaster T. (2001), Plagiarism Issues for Higher Education. Vine 31(2), pp. 36-41.

Examining The State of Academic Integrity in Europe - University Politehnica of Bucharest, Romania - 27 June 2017

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