Information societies and global knowledge economy policies have brought about unprecedented levels of organisational and cultural change in universities worldwide. Critics argue that the reconfiguration of universities as engines of economic growth has dealt critical blows to ethical principles and conduct in institutions now driven by corporate interest, competitive individualism, and the intensification of audit and surveillance regimes.
This special issue of Ethics and Education titled ‘In search of the ethical university’ offers articles from researchers in Australia, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom and the United States who engage with some of the key ethical questions confronting academics and higher education institutions in the twenty-first century. Contributors respond to questions such as: Have university executive, administrations and management really abandoned ethical principles in favour of corporate ethos? Have profits become more important than people within the university environment? Is it becoming more difficult to sustain ethical research practices as universities seek to strengthen ties to business, industry and government stakeholders? Have gate-keeping and monitoring mechanisms such as Ethics Committees and Institutional Review Boards become overly restrictive? Has it become more difficult to maintain one's own ethical standards in the intensely competitive workplace environments of contemporary universities? And, importantly, what are the possibilities for countering the ethical tensions and absences perceived by so many?
In responding to questions such as these, contributors took a variety of approaches in the presentation of their research in this special issue. We are pleased, therefore, that this volume contains research presented variously in the forms of debate; narrative; reflection and a collage of viewpoints; as well as more traditional types of academic papers. As an editorial team, we hope that the range of presentation styles included in this issue illustrates an open and inclusive approach to the publication of a diversity of academic genres. This is not to suggest any weakening of academic rigour in review. The usual blind peer review process has been adopted, to ensure the integrity of scholarly standards that readers have come to expect from Ethics and Education. Papers have been grouped around three broad themes: ethics of academic publishing; ethics committees and ethical research conduct; and ethical leadership and management in competitive times and amid the pressures of knowledge economy policies affecting higher education globally.
The issue opens with a paper from John Willinsky and Juan Alperin detailing issues of ethics in making academic research available to the broad academic sphere as well as to interested members of the general public through Open Access publishing. Willinsky and Alperin argue that Open Access publishing is one way of reaching out to share knowledge and reclaim the ‘ethical centre’ of a university's role in dissemination of information for public good, advancement and action. The authors cover a range of ways to achieve open access and sharing of scholarly research, arguing the moral good that can be achieved through the ethical use of new technologies.
The second paper is also concerned with the theme of ethical dilemmas in publishing. ‘Journal editing and ethical research practice: perspectives of journal editors’ details responses from seven recent journal editors to specific issues that confront journal editors today. The paper represents perspectives of academics with recent experience of journal editing, and topics discussed include: working with contributors to develop work for publication; balancing authority, influence and responsibility to the field; pushing epistemological, methodological or political boundaries; shaping the field through editorial and review processes; navigating professional networks in a competitive climate and safeguarding ethical practice and academic integrity. The paper aims to stimulate discussion about the ethical challenges faced by journal editors and the implications of such challenges for ethical practices in academic publishing in the current climate. Contributors include: Holly Randell-Moon, Nicole Anderson, Tracey Bretag, Anthony Burke, Sue Grieshaber, Anthony Lambert, David Saltmarsh and Nicola Yelland.
Papers three and four offer perspectives on the roles of ethics committees and ethical research practices. Christine Halse writes about the dilemmas of ethical research issues from her vantage point of an Australian University Ethics Committee Chair. Using a compilation of issues based on the example of a problematic ethics application (with fictionalised elements that maintain confidentiality considerations), she critiques a university ethics research proposal from the competing positions of the ethics of principlism and the positions of rational self-interest. Using Foucauldian concepts of reflexive analysis in the form of confession, she argues that rational egoism collides with the fundamental principles of promoting the welfare of ‘others’ in research. Andreas Hoecht also addresses the issues of ethics committees from a United Kingdom perspective. Presented in the form of a collegial debate, Hoecht uses Habermasian notions of ‘ideal speech’ to position viewpoints of ‘an ethically responsible employer’ juxtaposed to those of ‘an ethical research practitioner’. Like Halse, he raises issues of ethics committees acting to subjugate research agendas to compliance measures and issues of self-interestedness.
The final three papers outline issues of ethical concern in research leadership and management in globally competitive educational marketplaces. In the first paper, David Chan from the City University of Hong Kong argues that framing higher education in market terms, seen particularly in managerialism and the corporatisation of universities, conflicts with the fundamental values of Confucian philosophies and notions of Enlightenment. Drawing on Confucian and Kantian theories, he details the shift of roles and missions of universities from institutions of public good and broad knowledge dissemination to entities dealing in knowledge as a saleable commodity, and proposes an ‘East–West’ view of an ethical university. Sarah Aiston, from the United Kingdom, considers the position of women in academic life as an issue of international equity. Using the contrasting ethical approaches of consequentialism and deontologism, she uses a number of international studies to highlight gender inequities inherent within university structures, system and cultures. She offers a number of key areas for universities to address in order to move towards ethical workplaces for women. The final paper by Sue Saltmarsh, Wendy Sutherland-Smith and Holly Randell-Moon presents a multi-sited empirical study focussed on research leadership and management in the Australian context. Using the metaphor of ‘carrots’ and ‘whips’, the authors highlight how instrumentalist notions of productivity and performativity are encountered by research leaders and early career academics. The study concludes that competitive compliance cultures measuring research activity fail to inspire and support intellectual creativity, collegial conduct and ethical conduct in university research. Visionary research leadership is critical to inspire and assist, rather than berate and destroy, intellectual workers in our institutions of higher education.
We hope the articles in this special issue promote discussion, reflection and debate across national contexts about the fundamental notion of ethics in higher education institutions. The editorial team wishes to express their thanks to the individual contributors, as well as the many academics across the globe who reviewed manuscripts. We also thank the regular editor, Professor Richard Smith, for giving us the opportunity to edit this special issue of Ethics and Education.