This document discusses several global ethics issues in higher education. It addresses challenges related to digital ethics with the rise of technologies like artificial intelligence. It also discusses how higher education institutions can promote academic integrity on a global scale. Additionally, it examines ethical considerations around recruiting and supporting international students, such as potential exploitation. Finally, it outlines the four pillars of medical ethics and how they are implemented globally in higher education.

1. GLOBAL ETHICS IN HIGHER EDUCATION Global
Grads 2
Journal Paper: Global Ethics in Higher Education
The research addressed in this paper explores situations that
impact the field of higher education globally and how students
can navigate certain trials connected to ethics and prejudices.
The aim of this paper is to answer the following questions:
What challenges do higher institutions face in regards to digital
ethics? How do higher education institutions create climates of
academic integrity on the global scale? What are the pillars of
medical ethics and how are these implemented on a global scale
in higher education? What are the ethical considerations to be
made when bringing foreign students into higher education?
Why do athletics in higher education cause such an involvement
for ethical recruiting practices? What are the steps of creating

2. sexual assault awareness? Each topic addressed in this paper
provides considerations to uplift the field of education by
providing considerations or interventions to better the
experience for students, staff, and faculty at institutions across
the globe that can lead to a more responsible workforce and
community at large.
Introduction
The field of higher education has the opportunity to provide
positive change in the lives of students globally. However, it
can also cause harm if institutions or policies are not in place to
negate ethical mistreatment in the classroom, in the workforce
or in the personal lives of individuals. Professionals connected
to institutions must provide an atmosphere of respect, honesty,
and care for students holistically to eliminate exploitation of
international students for the sake of an institution's reputation.
Acts of exploitation can range from heightened cost of tuition
for international to masking sexual assault reporting. These
factors cause harm to students that go beyond higher education,
leading to scars that can impact career opportunities and mental
wellness. This paper addresses global stressors that affect
students and considerations that can provide a more student-
centered changes to institutions on the global scale.
Digital Ethics in Higher Education
Not only are higher education institutions tasked with keeping
up and possibly developing new digital technology, they have to
think about the ethical issues that go along with it. Digital
ethics should be viewed with a global perspective in mind
(Olcott et al, 2015). Most companies have treated data privacy
as both technical and legal issues, but it should be treated as an
ethical one as well (Stewart, 2020). Institutions ‘can be
energized by new technologies while (staying) fully aware of

3. the privacy and ethical considerations.’ (Olcott et al, 2015).
O’Brien states that along with the ethical issues new
technologies present, there are also unresolved ethical issues
with the internet itself and artificial intelligence gets the most
attention (2020). HolonIQ, a global education market
intelligence firm, claims that by the year 2025, artificial
intelligence will see an estimated doubling growth in the global
education technology market which will bring attention to the
ethical pitfalls that will come with it (O’Brien, 2020). Craig and
Georgieva note several immersive technologies that invite
various ethical challenges. At the top of the list for higher
education is the ethical concerns related to student data, privacy
and consent and accessibility issues (O’Brien, 2020).
College Mined Data
In a Wall Street Journal article entitled ‘Colleges
Mine Data’, they discussed how colleges and universities were
using machine learning or artificial intelligence to gage a
prospective student’s level of interest in their institution (Zeide,
2019). By using complex analytic systems, the software was
able to track their visits to their website, social media posts and
even monitor how quickly an individual took to open an email
sent from the university. Thousands of data points can be
collected and used as ‘enrollment analytics’ to determine
‘which students to reach out to, what aspects of campus life
they should emphasize, and assessing admission applications’
(Zeide, 2019). ‘Students at academic institutions are subject to
being tracked and surveilled by learning platforms in the course
of daily studies’ (Stewart, 2020). With the tracking of
information that higher education institutions are capturing, the
online security and privacy of student’s (or potential student’s)
information must be handled with care. Users with lack of
knowledge about the security of online sites open themselves up
to vulnerable situations ranging from data loss to digital
identity theft (Olcott, 2015).
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
protects the privacy of student education records, but what

4. about all the student data that is collected from potential
students as well? Dr. Stephen Orr notes that it is the institute of
higher education’s responsibility to ‘know what data you have,
know where it is, know who is in control of it, know the
policies and procedures that dictate how and by whom it can be
used, know the technical safeguards, and know what the plan is
when all of the best attempts to protect the data fails’ (2017).
Application of Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education
One pitfall to using artificial intelligence is, as Zeide describes,
narrowly defined goals (2019). If you rely on a system that uses
a code to determine if the results are optimal then you are
allowing less flexibility or may prioritize the wrong results.
For higher education admissions, AI is helpful in finding
potential new students, but something has to be said for
interacting with people face-to-face and experiencing their
personalities. If a student is being rejected by a school, does the
student not deserve to know the reason? ‘Decisions that used to
be based on human reflection are now made automatically.’
Pasquale points out that ‘we do not only have a quasi-
concentrated and powerful monopoly over these solutions, but
also an intentional lack of transparency on algorithms and how
they are used.’ (Kerr & Popenici, 2017)
One benefit that can come from the growing use of
artificial intelligence is student support. Machine learning can
assist students by helping automatically schedule their course
load or recommend courses, majors and career paths which
would normally be duties performed by academic counselors or
college career service offices (Zeide, 201). Personal interactions
between students and faculty/staff of higher education will still
be needed and lends itself to impact students the most however
artificial intelligence can help to meet the learning needs and
support the needs of a massive number of students (Kerr &
Popenici, 2017).
Academic Integrity in Higher Education
Academic integrity is a guiding value in education and provides

5. students the choice to act sensibly in all states of research. It is
the groundwork for ethical decision-making and behavior in
honest scholarly work in one’s profession and engagement with
the world on a global scale. Academic integrity has the
opportunity to establish a culture of ethics for an institution in
order to reduce fabrication or deception. It is a promise which
has to be embraced and nurtured by an institution and its
community. Academic integrity gives students the responsibility
to generate reliable scholarly work (Bygrave & Asik, 2019).
According to Erica Morris (2018), education on a global scale
should be fair to all students with resources and guidelines to
affirm equal opportunities. When a student violates standards of
academic integrity, that bond is broken along with the validity
of the trust a student will have within their community. Students
who have been taught how research is found and created will be
less likely to use the words or work of others. However, good
academic practice is expected and appropriately acknowledged.
Global institutions can only be considered effective if students
learn and develop the skills needed to navigate academic
research that can be applicable to the workforce. To make
academic honesty achievable, learning must be subjectable to
assessment. This provides reliable and honest reflection on
student development in legitimate and equal circumstances
(Fass-Holmes, 2017). If the assessment process finds fraudulent
acts, the validity of the learning process is vulnerable. Global
institutions should put initiatives in place to endorse honest
research practices.
How Colleges Develop Academic Integrity
According to Gary Pavela (n.d.), there are four conceptualized
stages of academic integrity that can be developed by
educational organizations globally. These stages are not levels
of progression for schools to achieve, but rather roles that
institutions play in student’s relationship with academic
integrity.
The first stage that an institution can establish is primitive. In
this stage, the school does not hold policies or procedures that

6. address acts of academic dishonesty. In stage two of
institutional development a school staff is aware of
performances in academic deception, but do not have structured
policies that address fair academic practices to aid students to
engage in research ethically or to navigate the consequences of
poor decisions making in academic scope. In stage three, is a
more mature stance on academic honesty where integrity
policies are in place at the institution. The responsibility of
academic integrity is placed on faculty to socialize their
students with academic integrity policies and to maintain ethical
research practices. Stage four is built around academic integrity
being ingrained in institutional culture. Students are responsible
for carrying out integrity policies through honor codes. This is
done by taking a pledge or signing an agreement to be ethically
contentious of a student’s personal behavior and of their peers
to carry out ethical research.
Preserving academic integrity is a collective responsibility
between students and the institution. The world must trust
institutions to successfully teach and help students grow.
Schools need to trust the students to take responsibility
seriously in the interests of their own goals (Fass-Holmes,
2017). Each shareholder connected to the learning and
community of an institution must be committed to ideology of
academic integrity to preserve assessment and credibility of
Higher Education on a global scale (Pavela, n.d.).
Visa and Residence in Higher Education
International students are some of the most at-risk for
being exploited in the world of higher education. The process of
recruitment in itself can be unethical, racially-biased, and
classist. As universities tend to recruit international students as
a way of funding, ethical issues are most certainly going to
surface especially when delving into the exact level of integrity
that the higher education institution possesses. The moral
obligations of these higher education institutions are typically

7. held to a greater standard than most companies that engage in
business since the obligation to teach is mostly considered to be
a moral factor in and of itself. The recruitment process, tuition
costs, and the underpaying of student employees are all matters
of ethical concern.
Many colleges have sought to increase their international
student population in order to improve their bottom line. Instead
of doing the recruitment process internally, many colleges have
sought the help of third-party companies. While this seems like
an efficient use of the university's resources, this also opens the
floor for ethical concern. Since the university in question
cannot monitor what transpires between the third-party
contractor and the students they are interested in recruiting, the
ethical concern is inherent therein. The third-party commercial
agent can thus recruit students that benefit him/her the most and
is not necessarily acting in the best interest of either the
students or the university that hired them (Robison, 2007).
Jane Robison noted in her research upon this matter that she
witnessed, “...a Vietnamese agent who held hostage a
prospective student’s documents until the student’s mother paid
an additional $1000 to the agent” (Robison, 2007, p.21). This is
not surprising as there is almost no governing force surrounding
these agents. At the same time, the agents can pick and choose
who they select for recruitment in the target countries, as bribes
are common and foreign parents may be desperate to get their
children to America for schooling. Not only do these agents
have the ability to accept these bribes, they also have the ability
to exploit both the students and parents who are typical ly in
rather desperate situations. Agents can also play favoritism
when dealing with more than one student from a different
country, leading to ethnic and racist bias, which, again, goes
unmonitored (Robison, 2007).
Financial Stressors Imposed on International Students
Another ethical consideration that must be noted when
dealing with international students is the sheer cost for tuition.
As is well documented, the United States has some of the most

8. expensive higher education institutions in the world. Regardless
of this, international students are often required to pay more
money in tuition and school fees than the average American
student (Velliaris et. al., 2015). Because of this, many
Universities accept international students on the basis that they
will receive no scholarships or internal funding to front the
costs of tuition. Therefore, if these foreign exchange students
wish to attend the institution in question, then they must pay for
these fees either out of pocket or by obtaining loans (Stein and
de Andreotti, 2016).
In any case, it has been proven in various legal claims that
many of the international students that have been admitted to
these institutions come from well-off families which led many
to believe that the only reason that they were accepted into the
institution in the first place is because of their ability to pay
rather than their grades or academic success (Altbach and
Reisberg, 2013). This also calls into question the ethical
concern for American students as many of the student spots
available in various universities were taken up by much richer
yet much less academically inclined international students,
which is a whole different level of a moral dilemma (Altbach
and Reisberg, 2013). In sum, many institutions of higher
education depend on these international students to pay for the
full tuition in order to receive funding.
Finally, another ethical consideration to be discussed when
dealing with foreign students is the idea of underpaying them.
Specifically in the medical division of these higher education
institutions, international students are desperate to come to the
States in order to have medical experience (Xu and Zhang,
2005). Because of this, Universities can pick and choose who
they wish to invite over to their college as research scholars and
how much they will pay them. Many students accept low paying
appointments and the universities are aware of this (Stein and
de Andreotti, 2016). Whereas an American student would be
paid a fair wage based on the payroll of the time, inter national
students are often underpaid and they are not even aware of it as

9. the money that they are making in the United States is more
than they would typically earn in their home countries (such is
the case with those who typically live in India) (Stein and de
Andreotti, 2016).
Some international scholars are even not paid at all, and instead
are treated as volunteers even though they are doing work that
others are getting paid for. Many medical universities take
advantage of this free labor, which is one of the most primary
ethical concerns when bringing medical scholars to the United
States from abroad. The most shocking part is that this is
perfectly legal as long as the scholar has at least $24,000 in
personal funds for each year that they are in the United States
(many students resort to taking out loans to have the required
$24,000 amount) (Xu and Zhang, 2005). All in all, the ethical
considerations of foreign students are vast, yet quite frequently
overlooked in today's universities.
Health Ethics in Higher Education
“First, do no harm”…The Hippocratic Oath is not only one of
the oldest medical texts, but it is also one of the most well -
known medical documents in history. Attributed to the Greek
physician Hippocrates, the Oath is believed to have been written
between the fifth and third centuries BCE (Kantarjian &
Steensma, 2014). The Oath is a pledge of medical conduct that
addresses two principles: helping the sick and protecting
patients from personal and social injustice and harm.
The Oath fell into obscurity for almost two millennia before
being revived in 1508 CE (Kantarjian & Steensma, 2014). Since
then, the Hippocratic Oath has been used as a spoken rite of
passage for graduating medical students as a promise to remain
ethical in their medical practice. The Oath is attributed with
being the foundation of the four pillars of medical ethics:
autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice.
Pillars of Medical Ethics
The pillar of autonomy requires healthcare professionals to

10. respect their patients and their patients’ right to accept and/or
refuse treatment both without coercion or coaxing (Gillon,
1994). It is a medical provider’s ethical responsibility to
educate their patients and to ensure that they have the capacity
to understand all risks and benefits of a procedure or treatment.
In today’s medical practice, a provider exercises patient
autonomy by having a consultation with their patient before any
and all medical treatments. Health care providers are ethically
obligated to receive consent from the patient or the patient’s
guardian before proceeding with treatment.
The pillar of beneficence encourages healthcare professionals to
promote the good of others and to act with their patient in mind
(Gillon, 1994). Simply put, it is the provider’s responsibility to
ensure that they decide on the type of treatment that would give
their patient the best outcome. Benefitting the patient has many
different facets that include cost, time, risk, and outcome. Given
the ever advancing and evolving nature of medicine, observing
beneficence also requires providers to maintain and update their
knowledge and skills (Stewart, 2020). In the United States, each
state has Continuing Medical Education (CME) requirements to
maintain licensure. For example, Tennessee requires 40 hours of
CME credit every two years (BoardVitals, 2021).
The pillar of non-maleficence tasks healthcare providers to
ensure that any treatment or procedure does not cause harm or
injury to the patient or others in society either by acts of
commission or omission (Kantarjian & Steensma, 2014).
Thomas McCormick states “It is clear that medical mistakes
may occur; however, this principle articulates a fundamental
commitment on the part of health care professionals to protect
their patients from harm” (McCormick, 2019).
The pillar of justice requires any action a provider makes to be
not only legal, but also respectful of the patient’s human rights
(Gillon, 1994). Not only does doctor patient confidentiality land
under the pillar of justice, so does guaranteeing the fair and
equal distribution of scarce healthcare resources. This has been
at the forefront of the medical community’s mind when deciding

11. who has access to the COVID-19 vaccine.
Medical Ethics According to the World Health Organization
The World Health Organization (WHO) has been a
world leader in global medicine since its inception in 1948.
Comprising of 194 member states, WHO is an agency of the
United Nations that has taken on the responsibility of
standardizing international public health (The U.S. government
and the World Health Organization 2021). WHOs objective for
2019-2023 has been “ensuring healthy lives and promoting well -
being for all at all ages” (Thirteenth General Programme of
Work 2019-2023 2018).
Sexual Assault Awareness in Higher Education
Sexual assault entails a broad range of sexual behaviors that are
unwanted that offenders usually use to assert control and power
over other people. Sexual assault entails undesirable sexual
behavior, which makes someone feel scared or threatened and
uncomfortable. It may also be defined as non-consensual sexual
contact with someone without permission. It entails rape,
indecent assault, and child sexual abuse. Abuse includes sexual
acts or unwanted sex, while child sexual abuse includes power
over a child to include the child in sexual activities. Higher
Education institutions must address the issues regarding sexual
assault awareness and come up with an empowerment approach
to working with sexual assault survivors. Some of the signs
associated with sexual assault in victims include low self-
esteem, elevated anxiety, increased alcohol and drug use,
sexually transmitted diseases, avoiding certain situations or
places, depression, changes in eating habits and sleeping
patterns, and suicidal tendencies self-harming behaviors.
Sexual assault in Higher Education deserves to be given more
attention. Institutions need to focus on sexual assault since it
affects students and employees disparately. The employees may
be affected by various institutional productivity and
organizational productivity and performance (Merkin & Shah,
2014). Victims may be unable to commit to their work due to
anxiety, depression, and fear symptoms, and also their job

12. satisfaction may be of low levels. Other effects include elevated
turnover, a high rate of absenteeism, and a lack of motivation.
Sexual assault is statistically associated with customary
incivility since it tends to happen in institutions, which leads to
the degraded well-being of an employee with the inclusion of
all types of mistreatment at the college. It has more unfavorable
health outcomes, where it is most prominent among sexual
minorities and girls (Merkin & Shah, 2014). Both men and
women encounter equally pessimistic effects from sexual
assault in job withdrawal, career salience, and job satisfaction.
Steps of Creating Sexual Assault Awareness
Merkin and Shah (2014) describes that sexual assault awareness
may be attained through training employees. Training may be
carried out through in-person format, internet, traditional, and
lecture-based. Training may entail specific issues like sexual
assault definition, reporting mechanism, conduct constituted by
sexual assault, and how complaints are needed to be
adjudicated. All student conduct departments at institutions
need to develop a mechanism of complaints. They may also
create awareness by distributing pamphlets for students and
employees at the institution. Another crucial element of
creating awareness is by having an intervention of bystander
training, ensuring that employees are responsible for
maintaining a conducive learning environment.
Student Conduct departments should implement a zero-
tolerance policy to communicate consistently through planned
programming or initiatives. Also, they need to conduct frequent
surveys to ensure that employees are dedicated to eliminating
sexual assault within the community and on campus since the
collected feedback from students and employees helps improve
the prevention programs of sexual assault.
Higher Education institutions can also provide interactive
programming as a means to bring sexual assault awareness to
students and employees. Workshops are essential since they
change behavior intentions and promote equitable gender
attitudes. They may also disperse literature and apply the use of

13. the internet by sensitizing the employees and students about
situations of harassment or assault (Jacobson & Eaton, 2018).
This helps build a code of ethics for students and employees to
collaborate with various stakeholders in aid of addressing the
problem.
Barriers to Reporting Sexual Assault for Both Men and Women
Gender-based violence vandalizes women's prospects in
achieving employment, pursuing career aspirations, and gaining
higher wages. Sable et al. (2006) describe that barriers were
prevailing thirty years ago before rape reform movement efforts
since they continue to be contemplated essential among women
and men. Essential barriers that were rated included
embarrassment, shame not wanting family and friends to real ize,
guilt, fear of never being believed, and confidentiality issues.
Both women and male discern the fear of always being regarded
as gay as an essential barrier to sexual assault in male victims
or fear and rape of vengeance by the offender to be a cruci al
barrier to women victims.
Sexual assault and rape continue to be regarded as a major
criminal justice and public health concern to both women and
men. The National College Women Sexual Victimization Survey
(NCWSVS) indicates that the college women rate is
approximately 27.7 rapes per 1000 female students. Lifetime
impressions of the prevalence of assaults in men range from 3%
to 10% to the total victims of sexual assault. Despite efforts in
education and legal reforms, sexual assault and rape remain
underreported crimes among women and male victims.
Sentiments categorize the most usual barriers to reporting
sexual assault and rape from various survivors such as the
matter was private where care was taken informally, it was a
minor incident, police could cause trouble to the respondent or
be biased and also could not recognize the offender, never
wanted the offender to get into trouble, and lastly, police could
not take the matter as crucial (Sable et al., 2006). Most of the
women lack confidentiality since it seems to be another
essential issue in reporting rape.

14. Among 236 females who were rape victims, researchers found
out that self-blame and guilt be the remarkable reason for the
females not to report about the incident. Also, a decision by the
victim may be guided by the relationship they have with the
offender. Researching gender variations about the barrier’s
essentiality could widen the understanding of such factors that
devote to the underreporting, and this would in distinguishing
commonalities in reporting of barriers.
Barriers to Working with Sexual Assault Survivors
Ullman & Townsend (2007) describe the various barriers
associated with working with the survivors including
environmental factors, societal attitudes, and organizational
barriers. Centers of rape crisis are positioned in aid of
responding to the emotional, social, and physical survivor
needs. Their services include group and personal counselling,
24-hour hotlines, and medical and legal advocacy for the crisis.
Various professional backgrounds offer distinct aspects of
negotiating to aid in easing tensions. There is a need to identify
the victim's face to aid in interviewing the assault case and
talking about the situation through an advocate's services.
Various suggestions indicate that system or organizational
barriers may bring detrimental retaliations to victims, and there
may be a scarcity of therapeutic services (Ullman & Townsend,
2007). The current focus from urban and rural rape centers for
crisis indicated a lack of knowledge of services, access,
revictimizing and unacceptable experiences with the service
providers, such as the absence of sensitivity by medical
personnel, criminal justice, and mental health personnel.
Secondary victimization findings are harmonious with various
studies of victims of sexual assault, indicating that survivors
reveal negative social reactions from both formal and informal
support providers. However, various studies describe that these
reactions have dangerous effects on survivors' psychological
symptoms, which include post-traumatic stress disorder.
Advocates are crucial sources of information regarding the
challenges faced by the service providers when helping

15. survivors. Vicarious and burnout trauma has been described as
challenges in other studies of worker's rape crisis and support of
crime victims. System and related organizational barriers
arising from the vantage point are essential because they link up
with survivors in lengthy periods.
Evaluation and collaborative research methods are vital when
operating with violence as opposed to women's organizations
because workers involved in those organizations have critical
knowledge concerning matters such as client confidentiality and
safety (Ullman & Townsend, 2007). There are various problems
with collaboration between service providers and researchers,
including different priorities, professional backgrounds,
diversity, and distinct cultures in an organization, leading to
various terminologies.
Empowerment Approach of Working with Sexual Assault
Survivors
Advocates in centers of rape crisis present an assortment of
services to sexual assault victims, including legal and medical
advocacy, 24-hour support, and crisis counselling. Reports or
information from victims are essential sources of information to
recognize the suitable type of aid they require and feel support.
It is vital to look for the advocate's perspectives, whose role is
to ensure they aid in providing help and support victims in
accessing resources from various systems. One of the distincti ve
characteristics of the rape crisis centers and workers is their
perspective on working with the survivors, referred to as
feminist or an empowerment perspective.
Definition of empowerment reflects how sexual assault
survivors steer individual recovery and in relationship with
supporting others such as counsellors and advocates who require
the help of facilitating coping strategies of adaptive behavior.
Various research indicates that women experience empowerment
as soon as they can control their feelings, behavior, and
thoughts (Ullman & Townsend, 2008). As Ullman and
Townsend (2008) explained, the empowerment rationale
approach indicated that the use of an empowerment perspective

16. by the aid of advocates to be a contrast to ways where informal
network associates reply to survivors who feel that control is
taken from them.
The empowerment approach of feminists necessitates that all
survivors are individually drawn, and it is observed to try to
avoid or reduce trauma in the work process. There are various
insinuations for empowering sexual assault survivors. In most
cases, there is a need for grounding the facts to social justice to
matters that may come from a straightforward standing point of
going after social justice.
Call to Action for Sexual Assault Intervention in Higher
Education
There is an alarming need of giving attention to sexual assault
in Higher Educations since it remains a steady problem at large.
Sexual assault implications in Higher Education have a radical
impact on the learning and social environment generated on
campus. Higher Education needs to take charge by initiating a
sound policy and offering broad sexual assault prevention
training that will reduce the likelihood of such assaults
occurring.
Ethical Athletic Recruitment Practices in Higher Education
The topic of ethics pertaining to athletic recruitment practices
within higher education institutions has become a more
prevalent subject within the past couple of years. Since the
inception of the National Collegiate Athletic Association
(NCAA), ethical recruiting practices have been few and far
between even to the point now where many consider the NCAA
as “broken” (Carasik, 2012). In today’s world of college
athletics, coaches and recruiters will go to unmeasurable ends,
even breaking ethical and legal codes, to bring in potential
recruits in hopes that they will bring numerous amounts of wins
and revenue to their institutions.
These recruiting efforts can include free housing, cars,
monetary value, gifts, and more. More times than not,
prospective recruits come from economic struggles and a rough
homelife, which makes it difficult for them to turn these

17. benefits down (Jewell, 2015). This exact situation happens
every year to thousands of athletes around the country. The bind
that incoming athletes have been put in by recruiters at higher
education institutions is the exact reason why ethics within
athletic recruiting needs to be emphasized now more than ever.
There is no correct answer in a situation like this for any
athlete, but these types of recruiting practices are not ethically
correct either for any institution.
The outcome of these unethical recruiting efforts is the uneven
playing field that continues to exist in college athletics. The
most powerful and wealthy schools keep getting better, while
others do not. Recruits who are choosing between multiple
schools will be more enticed to choose a bigger school over a
smaller one due to the benefits that a bigger school can
financially provide (Goodman, 2015). This has continued to be
a domino effect and is the sole reason why there are a small
percentage of teams who are successful every year. The benefits
and services that are unethically offered by bigger schools
“make the disparity between big and small schools even larger”
(Goodman, 2015). The playing field between big and small
schools is never even due to the bigger schools always getting
the best recruits because of these unethical practices. It is a
never-ending cycle that puts smaller schools (which make up
most of the NCAA) at a complete disadvantage every year.
Reasons for Unethical Recruitment
The main difference and reason that these unethical recruiting
practices occur is the revenue that is involved in higher
education athletics. While this was not a huge thought when the
NCAA came into existence, over time college athletics have
proven to be a cash cow. It is also no secret that the best teams
are the ones who make the most money. For example, the
University of Kentucky, annually one of the best college
basketball teams, brings in over $100 million per year
(Ebony.com). This is just one of the many schools that bring in
a large amount of revenue from higher education athletics. So,
what does this have to do with unethically recruiting potential

18. student-athletes? The teams who have the best players win the
most games, which in turn brings in the most revenue.
Everything comes back to the recruits that an institution brings
in, which is why schools will stop at no ends to bring in the best
players they can find.
The other reason schools find themselves in these illegal
recruiting actions is due to the emphasis and pressure placed on
winning. This pressure is at a premium because in college
athletics wins equal money. In a research study done by Mariya
Yukyemenko, a research associate at the University of Illinois
at Chicago, it was stated that the inclination to break the rules
at major Division I programs was extremely high due to the
emphasis placed on winning being at an all-time high (Apa.org).
If winning is the end all be all, then it is easy to see why
coaches and school officials would unethically recruit the best
athletes to ensure they end up at their institution. Most coaches
are on a short leash with their respective schools if they do not
win, which puts an enormous amount of pressure on them to get
the best athletes possible.
Considerations to Create Ethical Recruitment in College
Athletics
Taking into consideration the reasonings that were listed, the
main question that needs to be answered is how does this issue
get fixed? Institutions are obviously not scared to get caught
due to the continuous number of violations being handed out on
a yearly basis, so fixing this issue will have to go in a different
direction. The first way is to hold head coaches accountable for
their actions (Davis, 2015). Since the schools seem to not care
about the repercussions of unethical recruiting, the next group
to take responsibility should be the coaches. When recruiting
violations come upon a school, the school is mainly affected
with the coaches (who are the biggest part of unethical
recruiting) usually getting off clean. If coaches understand
there are consequences for themselves to illegally recruit
players, then hopefully they will be less inclined to take part.
The next course of action to cut down on unethical recruiting

19. practices is to eliminate conferences completely (Carasik,
2012).
The biggest conferences put the most weight into their
recruiting efforts and these same conferences also have the most
violations. If conferences were eliminated, then teams would
not have as much of a demand to unethically recruit players. No
conferences would mean that schools would not have the
pressure to stay up-to-par with the other schools they are
competing against. It would take competition down a notch,
which is a huge reason why teams are practicing unethical
recruiting.
The last way and the one that needs the most consideration
when tackling these illegal recruiting efforts is to restructure
the NCAA completely (Carasik, 2012). The NCAA has one goal
in mind: make as much money as possible. This thought process
has caused college athletics to be taken over by money. If the
NCAA was able to shift their emphasis from revenue to the
actual athletic events, then these issues would die down as time
continues on. Restructuring and taking an emphasis off money
generated would not predispose institutions to unethically
recruit athletes, because they would not look at them as dollar
signs anymore, but actual humans who are playing a sport for
their school.
Conclusion
There are countless challenges in the field of higher education
which are heightened when aiding students in a global
perspective. When institutions act with veracity, it can combat
global issues like citizenship and recruitment practi ces. A
universal code of ethics at each global institution has the
opportunity to better the college campus community to complete
digital coursework with academic integrity and accountability in
preventing sexual assault behavior. There must be continued
work in assisting international students with understanding their
legal rights. Similar to the pillar of autonomy, staff and faculty
must aid students to act autonomously to know their rights in
navigating their personal lives and career paths as a means to

20. reduce exploitation.
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