ACADEMIC INTEGRITY AS PART OF THE INTERNAL QUALITY ASSURANCE SYSTEM: EXPERIENCE AND PROSPECTS

Abstract

Ukraine’s gradual accession to the European Education Area requires a number of reforms, which have been actively implemented since 2014. The development of external and internal quality assurance systems involves the development of a culture of zero tolerance for manifestations of academic dishonesty. At the national level, there were the rules and  norms of academic integrity legislated to be observed by each participant of the educational process, as well as the types of violations of academic integrity and the responsibility for its violation were specified. Given the provision of higher academic autonomy to higher education institutions of Ukraine, the development of the system of academic integrity and of institutional mechanisms for establishing responsibility for its violation fosters  educational institutions to independently create a system and develop local documents that regulate their own policies in shaping values, traditions, norms and approaches to establishing responsibility. This article describes the experience in developing the policy of academic integrity of the National University of Water and Environmental Engineering, which is a participant in the project «Initiative of Academic Integrity and Quality of Education» and develops its own institutional model of building mechanisms for academic integrity by all participants. The model is based on a high image of learning through transparent assessment of academic achievement, ensuring unimpeded student – teacher communication, use of electronic services and anti-plagiarism systems in the educational process. The main challenges faced by the institution of higher education are studied, and the prospects for further development of academic integrity as one of the factors that shape the internal quality system of higher education are identified.