Perspectives of Academic Integrity from Nigeria

Abstract

Integrity or honesty is crucial to the pursuit of academic knowledge in learning institutions such as those in the Nigerian educational system. In recent times, this system has been replete with reported and unreported cases of academic integrity breaches, making the goal of achieving academic integrity a major challenge. This could be, in part, as a result of various perspectives of what constitutes academic integrity in the Nigerian context. A number of factors have been identified as being responsible for this variation, including the education system, pedagogy, sociocultural environment, economic environment, infrastructure, technology, institutional policies, and management systems. This chapter provides a synopsis of the different perspectives of academic integrity in Nigeria. It then examines the present academic climate, policies and practices, and their impact on academic integrity-related issues. It also provides an overview of the development of research and practice in the field of academic integrity in Nigeria, highlighting the unique issues relating to academic integrity. It concludes by presenting an overview of the major challenges associated with academic integrity and possible ways of instituting a culture of integrity in the Nigerian academic system.

Academic integrity in the Muslim world: a conceptual map of challenges of culture

“…Equally, borrowing other's work, reusing other's words or ideas intentionally passing others' work off as your own was viewed as problematic. Some of the literature we identified related to academic integrity (e.g., Abdel-Hadi, 2017;Abdulghani et al, 2018;Abdulrahman, Alsalehi, Husain, Nair, & Carrick, 2017;Shukr & Roff, 2015) separates plagiarism and cheating, other scholars believe that cheating and plagiarism cannot be separated and explore the two interrelated academic breaches in their contexts (e.g., Abou-Zeid, 2016;Cinali, 2016;Mohanty, 2016;Orim, 2016).…”

“…However, despite the prevalence among all levels of the academy, the papers on prevention of plagiarism tend to focus on plagiarism detection and prevention amongst students with only one of these papers exploring the perspectives of researchers including students and staff. Perhaps the reason for this focus on students is the desire to prevent academic integrity breaches as early as possible as part of an educative approach (Mohanty, 2016;Orim, 2016).…”

“…Four studies explore challenges to upholding academic integrity. These studies demonstrate that academic integrity breaches cannot be viewed in isolation, but are impacted by prior education, the education system as a whole as well as attitudes in society in general (Abou-Zeid, 2016;Cinali, 2016;Mohanty, 2016;Orim, 2016). The other two studies investigate student perceptions of ethics and moral values in general and whether these are consistent with their attitudes towards their studies (Nahar, 2018;Pallavi & Kaushal, 2017).…”

“…In terms of skills, the research reveals that general academic skills and knowledge of academic culture in academic writing, time management, critical thinking, creativity and respect for originality impact on the culture of academic integrity (Cinali, 2016;Orim, 2016;Shukr & Roff, 2015). Scholars and higher education practitioners report feeling overwhelmed that after decades of studying and promoting academic integrity many students still perceive plagiarism, cheating and collusion as acceptable, or not serious and/or did not understand what constituted an academic integrity breach (Abdulrahman et al, 2017;Cheah, 2016;Imran & Nordin, 2013;Maimunah et al, 2018;Moten, 2014).…”

“…Nahar (2018) further shows that while a group of students understood that bribery was sinful in accordance to Islamic teaching and therefore understood that it was prohibited, they failed to understand that plagiarism and ghost-writing were unacceptable as well. Other studies also emphasise the importance of explicitly labelling negative academic behaviours (Abdulghani et al, 2018;Adiningrum, 2015;Orim, 2016;Shukr & Roff, 2015).…”