A theory of change for student-led academic integrity

Abstract

Breaches in academic integrity are a pervasive and enduring international concern to the overall quality of higher education. Despite students being the group most affected by academic integrity policies, organisational culture is such that students tend to be passive recipients of change initiatives, rather than the drivers. To deliver a paradigm change, a theory of change framework was designed, implemented and applied to explore the viability of a student-led academic integrity society. To achieve this, a national research project involving three stages of data collection (surveys, interviews and focus groups) was conducted to obtain the perspectives of students and student representatives. The key outcome of the project has been the recent launch of an academic integrity student society, a novel initiative outside the United States of America. The theory of change framework presented here seeks to offer guidance to other institutions contemplating the viability of student-led change to academic integrity and the establishment of academic integrity student societies, in particular.

Keywords:

• Theory of change
• quality in higher education
• academic integrity
• student societies
• student leadership
• honour codes

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank their own university and the project partner institutions for their generous contribution to this project, as well as all those participants who contributed to the data collection processes. The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching.