European Network for Academic Integrity Erasmus Project

Project Title

European Network for Academic Integrity

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Quality and Relevance of Higher Education in Partner Countries; Ethics, religion and philosophy (incl. Inter-religious dialogue)

Project Summary

The project European Network for Academic Integrity (ENAI) was focused on establishing a platform for cooperation and creation of innovative tools and resources in the field of academic integrity. The most important outcomes of the project are:
* Establishing the association of legal entities engaged in educational activities, who want to collaborate in the field of academic integrity;
* A wide range of high quality educational resources about aspects of academic integrity tailored to the needs of different stakeholders;
* Materials for cross-sectoral cooperation, namely the resources linking academic and professional integrity;
* Toolkit for institutions to develop or improve their policies, processes and regulations about the academic integrity issues.

Most of the project partners had already been in very close cooperation before the project started. There had been efforts to communicate on a common platform before, and this project created the opportunity to formalise and expand this kind of cooperation. The “umbrella” ENAI platform has become a trans-national portal for disseminating and sharing high quality resources for promoting academic integrity to a wide range of stakeholders.

But this project was not just about a platform. The main goal was to prepare content for this platform, to teach people how they should behave in education, academic research and also throughout their career. The content includes methodological materials for teachers, self-evaluation and self-assessment tools, interactive courses and many other supporting tools. All these outcomes represent a very innovative tool kit; Before this project, there were no other common materials for academic integrity on the European level of this nature.
The phenomenon of academic integrity is obviously interdisciplinary topic, which was reflected by the composition of the project consortium. There are many different faculties and departments (economic, medical, ICT, sociology,…) and even Slovak Centre of Scientific and Technical Information as a representative of a national body point of view participated in project activities.

The project has 3 main outputs. The first is a set of educational materials for HEI teachers and students. We designed a course for teachers and modules for students including videos, FAQ about plagiarism, didactical notes and typology of intertextual mistakes. The second output consists of tools for cross-sectoral cooperation as a manual, real-life examples or even workshop for high school students and teachers. The third output consists of a handbook (tool-kit) including a glossary of terms related to academic integrity, general guidelines, four kinds of self-evaluation tools, academic integrity self-improvement in a nutshell.

The project outputs are based on qualitative research in particular countries when researchers investigate country specifics and examples of best practice. The researchers from the project partner institutions have been working together at joint training events. Three conferences were held during the project to disseminate the project results and to get more institutions and individuals on board the ENAI association. The conferences were also a useful means of getting necessary feedback on project outputs.
An important aim was to raise awareness in the matters of plagiarism, academic ethics and academic integrity. ENAI focuses not only on HEI students and their teachers (our main target group), but on the whole of academia (professors, post-docs, PhD, administration staff and management, including academic ethics committees, etc.) and future HE students (high school students) and their teachers. ENAI is addressing all kinds of academic misconduct, such as cheating, plagiarism, scientific misconduct, mobbing (bullying).

One unifying international body representing the interests of many institutions all over Europe could be a great advantage in potential negotiations on higher levels. At the beginning, there were 12 core partners across Europe (project consortium) of which 11 represent universities. Even before the project started, many others claimed their readiness for future cooperation and joining the ENAI platform. Right now, ENAI has 27 member institutions from 20 countries. It is a well established and recognized platform which will ensure sustainability of the project results. The platform will continue to work on project activities after the project is finished – develop materials, organize events (including annual conferences), circulate information amongst partner universities. Operation of the platform is sustained by an office financed by membership fees. Thanks to all these activities we are able to spread the outcomes of our project to other European countries and even beyond European borders, embracing all disciplines.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 280024 Eur

Project Coordinator

MENDELOVA UNIVERZITA V BRNE & Country: CZ

Project Partners

• UNIVERZA V MARIBORU
• MYKOLO ROMERIO UNIVERSITETAS
• UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DELL’INSUBRIA
• THE NOTTINGHAM TRENT UNIVERSITY
• EDEX – EDUCATIONAL EXCELLENCE CORPORATION LIMITED
• UNIVERSITAT KONSTANZ
• RIGAS TEHNISKA UNIVERSITATE