Academic Integrity in African Context

by Moses Audi (PhD), President of Baptist Theological Seminary, Kaduna, Nigeria

Academic integrity is a great concern in Africa. It is often compromised by various forms of dishonesty. Most critical factors responsible for academic dishonesty include: giving of attention to ‘success’ and financial gain over-against acquisition of skill and competence; inadequate exposure of students to standard academic practice; ill-prepared teaching; cultural definition of honesty; careless approaches to research; and, compromise in regards to entry requirements. These same factors affect the response to expressions of academic dishonesty as well.

Taking certain measures such as: identify the causative factors in each setting and consciously provide an appropriate response to it; adopting effective teaching-learning approaches; engaging adequately-prepared research teachers; uphold standards of entry requirements in schools; give attention to the spiritual state of the students; thorough supervision of students; and, adopting or developing effective IT technique; will enable theological institutions to produce graduates with academic integrity. Any action that will build skill and confidence of the student will encourage academic integrity in the schools.

Listen to Dr. Audi’s lecture presented at ABTEN 2019:

Download audio MP3

This presentation is available to listen to in French below or right-click to download:

(French translation)

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