Administered by the American Councils for International Education in partnership with the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and National Agency for Education Quality Assurance, Academic IQ project aims to develop a professionalized workforce of educators and administrators who collaborate to support academic integrity across Ukrainian HEIs and secondary schools.

AcademIQ project will:

– equip and empower EQACs and administrators with tools and knowledge to sustainably facilitate academic integrity on campus;
– develop a uniform approach in implementation of academic integrity laws and requirements on campus;
– develop teaching methodologies and curricula that cultivate academic integrity in classrooms.

Component One – FACILITATION OF ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

American Councils will equip representatives of EQAC (Universities Eternal Qualification Assurance Centers) with the knowledge and competence to develop efficient quality education monitoring, identify critical factors of violations of academic integrity by the beneficiaries of an educational system and give recommendations on how to improve education quality within their institutions.

American Councils will support 60 EQACs over two-year-long training cycles held over the two-year project period. Universities and EQACs have been selected through an open application process.

Under this component American Councils has developed and provided selected Universities with Institutional Self-Evaluation Toolkit that aims to enhance EQAC`s capacities to collect transparent and accurate data and make data-driven decisions necessary. American Councils provides EQAC’s staff with training on how to adapt and use the Toolkit, analyze data received, identify areas for improvement, and develop a strategy for implementing the changes necessary to strengthen academic integrity in their institutions.

Component Two – ENFORCEMENT OF ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

American Councils provides advice and support to NAQA experts and its Ethics Committee in developing capacity and expertise in academic integrity. American Councils also supports the advancement of the NAQA Transparent Accreditation Platform (NAQA TAP) software, including integration with AcademIQ and training on the use of the software to ensure that the technical capacities of the accreditation process are sound.

Component Three – INSTRUCTION WITH ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

American Councils provides guidance and training to Ukrainian educators on how to approach cultivating academic integrity in secondary and post-secondary school classrooms.  American Councils will develop an online academic integrity course for HEIs faculty aiming to enhance their capacities to build a culture of academic integrity within their institutions.

 

The launch of Acacemic IQ Initiative Project was preceded by American Councils’ successful administration of the Strengthening Academic Integrity in Ukraine Project – SAIUP (2016-2019) and the Seeding Academic Integrity in Secondary Schools Project – SAISS 92017-2019).

Strengthening Academic Integrity in Ukraine Project – SAIUP was the first project of its kind, aiming to raise academic integrity issues among Ukrainian academia. As an extension to this initiative, in autumn of 2017, Seeding Academic Integrity in Secondary Schools Project – SAISS was introduced with the aim to start cultivating academic culture with integrity as an inherent feature in students at secondary school. SAIUP and SAISS projects are coordinated by the American Councils for International Education in Kyiv, Ukraine.

The initial and overall goal for both projects is to promote an idea of academic integrity, its importance, and practical value as a prerequisite for obtaining a high-quality education. Now we are working with a broad network of partners, including the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv as key ones.

Strengthening Academic Integrity in Ukraine Project – SAIUP

SAIUP has united 15 universities in different regions of Ukraine with a common goal to instill academic honesty into their institutions. Each of them contributes to disseminating academic integrity values and policies on their campuses and in their region. SAIUP gives an invaluable experience for students to run awareness campaigns for freshmen and their peers. SAIUP student coordinators undertake academic integrity initiatives and carry out a wide range of activities and mini-projects. Project’s faculty coordinators work closely with university administrations to inculcate academic integrity practices into the major institutional policies. Honor Codes, Ethical Committees, anti-plagiarism papers check, enhancing the quality of teaching to mention but a few are the main contributions of the academic integrity activists on campus. In line with SAISS, students at partnering Pedagogical Universities as future teachers are expected to later sow secondary education with the seeds of academic integrity.

Seeding Academic Integrity in Secondary Schools Project – SAISS

SAISS is an initiative that involves high school students, their parents or caretakers, teachers, and school administrations in a wide range of activities that promote academic integrity.

Through our offline and online campaigns with main stakeholders, integrity has been presented as an essential element for successful academic, professional, and civic and workforce development. Bringing this message across, university students arrange discussions and presentations for their younger peers who are to make decisions on their future profession soon. This university-school collaboration reinforces the systemic character of the education in Ukraine and highlights the significance of honesty as a core value for all participants of the education process at all levels.

SAISS has been always striving to enrich teachers’ and parents’ awareness of basic academic integrity rules. Online platforms and courses, off-line discussions, and seminars are only a tip of the iceberg that carries a philosophy of integrity in education. This conceptual approach has a straightforward influence on the country’s prosperity and sustainable development. Among the brightest achievements of the SAISS team is an online course Academic Integrity for High School Teachers, launched in September 2019. So far, more than 22000 teachers have registered for the course, and over 16000 participants have already successfully graduated and got certificates.

Impact

A new Law on Education, adopted in September 2017 by Ukrainian Parliament and signed by the President, includes Article 42 Academic Integrity. This can be considered as a contribution of SAIUP work and as a momentous event for the Ukrainian education. In March 2020 a new Law on Full Secondary Education came into force. It features Article 43 Supporting Academic Integrity in the Sphere of Secondary Education, which is another achievement for the SAISS team. Obligatory academic integrity regulations on the national level have become a roadmap for both high and secondary educational institutions to move forward. SAIUP/SAISS is always ready to be aside and help educational institutions to navigate in their journey towards transparent and rigid academic integrity policies.

We believe that changes can happen to the community only through its members, but they aren’t going to happen at once. Both SAIUP and SAISS set a really ambitious goal to expand values of integrity on young Ukrainians who will fundamentally transform not only their local communities but the country as a whole.

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Strengthening Academic Integrity in Ukraine Project (SAIUP)

Seeding Academic Integrity in Secondary School Project

e-mail: saiup.press@gmail.com

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