In 2020, nine Czech and Moravian universities joined forces in the Strengthening the Prevention of Plagiarism in Student Works project, intending to initiate an interuniversity dialogue and, above all, practical cooperation in supporting academic ethics and preventing fraudulent practices in academic writing. The project team proposed a definition of plagiarism for the Czech environment and prepared handbooks for academics and for students.
In 2021, the number of participating universities increased to 20. The project Strengthening the Academic Integrity of University Students with a Focus on the Risks and Opportunities of Distance Learning and Assessment Methods dealed with mechanisms which could help institutions strengthen their resilience to academic fraud, building on our own as well as foreign experience.
The project Social Safety and Security at Czech Universities in the Context of Academic Ethics, in which 26 universities are already collaborating in year 2022, continues to support the prevention of negative phenomena and to design the mechanism and didactic tools for the development of academic integrity among students, academic staff and institutions. Within the project, the participating universities discuss the maximum of “social safety and security” with regard to the Czech academic environment and current developments.
In 2023, 26 universities have joined the Preventing Unethical Behaviour on Campus and Promoting Competence in Victim Care project. The main focus of this project is on implementing the findings on institutional vulnerabilities in the design of case management practices, and on broadening the perspective in the field of pre-counselling and prevention on the one hand and the field of reducing the impact of secondary victimisation on the other. The aim is to strengthen the resilience of institutions and individuals to different types of unethical behaviour, including through didactic tools. The project is based on the thesis that issues of academic ethics should be viewed comprehensively, rather than segmenting tools according to the type of unethical behaviour.
Project in year 2020
In 2020, nine Czech and Moravian universities joined forces in the Strengthening the Prevention of Plagiarism in Student Works project, intending to initiate an interuniversity dialogue and, above all, practical cooperation in supporting academic ethics and preventing fraudulent practices in academic writing. We evaluated the current state of prevention, detection and resolving plagiarism at Czech universities, we tried to identify and draw attention to examples of good practice, start a discussion on what is perceived as unethical practice in the Czech environment, and propose the most appropriate definition of plagiarism for shared use. We prepared recommendations for universities and handbooks for teachers and students and, most importantly, we have established platforms through which various actors from Czech universities can share their experiences and ideas. Our main goal remains to gradually unify the criteria to assess the severity of plagiarism and to systematically strengthen the awareness of destructive or unethical practices in the academic environment. Our project is based on the belief that plagiarism and other fraudulent practices must be tackled not only by repression but above all by prevention.
Project in year 2021
In 2021, the project was expanded to include ten more universities and colleges - it turned out that the issue of academic ethics resonated across the Czech higher education system and there was a huge demand to deal with it on a systemic level. At the same time, all partner universities were exposed to new challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, even in the field of academic ethics. The project, therefore, decided to respond to this demand and use the structure it had created to start a debate on the consequences of the pandemic, the responses to it, and the advent of distance learning methods for academic ethics and integrity. Therefore, the project Strengthening the Academic Integrity of University Students with a Focus on the Risks and Opportunities of Distance Learning and Assessment Methods deals with mechanisms which could help institutions strengthen their resilience to academic fraud, building on our own as well as foreign experience. We also analyze examples of good practice created during the pandemic semesters, and we formulate recommendations for academic management, teachers, and students on how to prevent fraud in distance and non-distance conditions.
Thanks to the diversity of partners involved, we can also better name and take into account the needs and requirements of different types of educational institutions in the 2021 project, for example when working with non-text sources. Communicating topics related to academic ethics to the general public, academic as well as non-academic, is also an integral part of the 2021 project. Our approach is based on the belief that understanding the structural risks that rise from the Czech higher education system, not only for the academic environment itself but also for the society in which academic graduates work, is a condition to systematically strengthening its resistance to academic fraud. Therefore, the online magazine Universitas is also cooperating with us in the project this year and helps communicate partial academic ethics topics in an understandable way to other audiences.
Project in year 2022
The project Social Safety and Security at Czech Universities in the Context of Academic Ethics, in which 26 universities are already collaborating in year 2022, could already build on challenges and needs that was identified during development of the projects in previous two years and link them to current challenges. Based on data, knowledge and outcomes of previous years, it continues to support the prevention of negative phenomena and to design the mechanism and didactic tools for the development of academic integrity among students, academic staff and institutions.
It expands the topic to include a new area, the relevance of which arose from development of project in 2021 (the focus on the motivation of persons to ethical, respectively unethical behaviour, led to the statement of importance of setting the environment in which students carry out their studies) and from the new pandemic stimuli (health and psychological context of study, new social inequalities, newly defined vulnerabilities, domestic violence, issues of privacy vs. the public) and others, such as increased interest in the issue of sexual harassment and prejudice, political pressures, online bullying. Therefore, the project will expand its focus on supporting the prevention of negative phenomena to include the area of so-called social security, which is perceived as an integral part of the effort to create a safe, fair and ethical academic environment in order not only to minimize (old and new) inequalities in chances, but also to increase academic freedom and full- fledged development of talents.
Within the project, the participating universities discuss the maximum of “social safety and security” with regard to the Czech academic environment and current developments, define the current status and needs, formulate recommendations for systemic policies for institutions and propose didactic tools for the development of the academic integrity among students, academic staff and management, which would include key competencies for the development of social safety and security.
The participating Universities are fully aware of physical safety is a prerequisite for building social safety and security. They see strengthening academic integrity and freedom as a fundamental pillar of strengthening the resilience of the university environment in the time of war.
Project in year 2023
In 2023, the 26 universities involved in the Preventing Unethical Behaviour on Campus and Promoting Competence in Victim Care project will focus primarily on strengthening the resilience of institutions and individuals to different types of unethical behaviour. This priority is based on the findings of previous years, which have shown that Czech universities already show relatively good results in the normative treatment of setting an ethical environment, but the main challenge remains the practice, i.e. the ability to deal with specific cases.
Deficiencies in the setting and practical implementation of an ethical and fair environment have a direct and serious negative impact on the quality of university teaching and research. Moreover, in 2023, we can expect a rise in risk factors due to current political and economic challenges (worsening economic situation of students and employees, increasing value of student status, decline in mental health due to poly-crisis, political polarisation).
The project is based on the thesis that, from a prevention perspective, a wide range of ethically problematic behaviour has common solutions, namely:
- Strengthening institutional competence and setting up mechanisms to promote a fair environment, including training of staff to work with specific cases,
- Promoting the academic integrity of individuals at all levels of the academic hierarchy and strengthening their competence to properly deal with ethical dilemmas in everyday operations.
Building on the analysis of regulations and standards carried out in 2023, the project seeks to intervene in case management practices by naming critical points in institutional practices based on case studies. It then formulates recommendations for the use of didactic tools to promote academic integrity based on the mapping of domestic and international good practices.
Thematically, the project in 2023 focuses on the subtopic of care for the "victim" of unethical behaviour, which has not been systematically addressed so far. It focuses on those areas that are often overlooked in the handling of specific cases – pre-counselling on the one hand and reducing the risks of secondary victimisation on the other. This perspective is also intended to encourage more structured thinking about the roles that individuals enter into within specific situations, which are not limited to the perpetrator-victim dichotomy.
In 2023, the project pays special attention to the target group of foreign students, which has been repeatedly assessed as high-risk and particularly vulnerable.
The project is coordinated by Masaryk University, the project team is composed of all partner universities’ representatives and other invited experts. In addition to implementing the relevant parts of the project, the partner universities are involved in joint project activities and thus contribute to achieving the project’s objectives. The project is financially supported by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports.