Address examination malpractices to restore academic integrity; Prof. Fletcher tells institutions

The Dean of Education and Leadership School at the University of Ghana, Professor Jonathan Fletcher, has underscored the need for academic institutions to uphold academic integrity to achieve excellence.

He said examination malpractices (leading to academic dishonesty) were increasing, with new techniques being introduced every day, stressing that the fight against academic dishonesty in the education system was necessary because when dishonesty thrived, the academic system and society suffered.

The colloquium

Prof. Fletcher made the statement when he delivered the keynote address at the maiden inter-faculty colloquium of the Valley View University (VVU) at Oyibi in the Greater Accra Region last Monday.

The four-day colloquium is on the theme: "Promoting academic excellence and integrity: The role of the faculty researcher".

The opening ceremony of the event was also used to inaugurate the Centre for Academic Research and Engaged Scholarship (CARES) at the Valley View University.

Prof. Fletcher said with the current technological advancement, some students had adopted sophisticated methods of cheating during exams, such as getting access to answers and saving them on basic gadgets such as watches and calculators.

“Technology companies have also made examination malpractices worse by creating sophisticated gadgets such as calculators and watches which students use to cheat in an examination,” he added.

He said there was the need for exhaustive research to find the core reasons for academic dishonesty, including plagiarising and cheating in examination and urged academic institutions to be more vigilant.

Fighting academic dishonesty

Prof. Fletcher said there was the need for research to find the core reasons for academic dishonesty in order to evolve a system that ensured integrity within the academia.

He also recommended that alternative opportunities should be created for students who wanted to pursue training in skills development after secondary education, without necessarily going to tertiary institutions, to equip themselves for their future development.

Undertake more research

A Deputy Minister of Education, Prof. Kwesi Yankah, expressed concern about the poor interest in research in Ghana, and in Africa in general, saying there was the need to prioritise research to inform government policies, stressing that "As researchers, you have to make academic sense of everyday life to help improve our society".

Prof. Yankah urged people in academia to strive to produce credible research reports that would enhance national development.