ETHICS IN HIGHER EDUCATION
INTRODUCTION:
Education does not end with mastery over few languages or subjects. It also means opening the doors of the mind , cleansing the soul realization of the self. We, as Pakistanis do have a rich and huge volumes of spiritual heritage.
At various levels of Pakistani Education System in general and the higher technical education in particular, the ethical considerations lost its value and place. In the real life the ethics are neither taught through text books nor preached/ advocated through any other media or learning/ teaching.
Do you think that merely expansion of educational infrastructure would produce good human being without inculcating in them the basic ethics, values and virtues as advocated by the Saints, the Sufis, the Gurus of our ancient society and by our rich civilization?. Do you think we can produce effective Managers, Technocrats, Bureaucrats, Politicians and Entrepreneurs without the knowledge of ethics, values and virtues?.
“The education system needs to strengthen the values of ethics, secularism, democracy, inclusiveness and pluralism. These are great values enshrined our constitution and traditionally developed by our civilization. These values give strength and sustenance not only to our diverse multi culture society but also to our country,”
ETHICS:
“What are we like, and what should we do?”
As humans we are faced with many decisions in life, which in and of itself distinguishes us from animal kingdom. I’m sure other animals make decisions too, but as humans we take into account our values and morals. In choosing which path to take with some of life decisions , “ethics” are often the center; heavily influencing our choices between what is right and what is wrong.
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As the time goes on, society evolves, so do our values, morals and ethics.
What is Ethics:
What does ethics mean to you?
It may be defined as following ;-
1: Ethics has to do with what my feelings tell me is right or wrong.
2: Ethics has to do with my religious beliefs.
3: Being ethical is doing what the law requires.
4: Ethics consists of standards of behavior our society accepts.
The meaning of ethics is hard to pin down , and the views many people have about ethics are shaky.
Being ethical is clearly not a matter of following one’s feelings. Infact feelings frequently deviate from what is ethical.
Nor should one identify ethics with religion. Being ethical is not the same as following law and “whatever society accepts”.
Actually ethics is 2 things :-
҉ WELL FOUNDED STANDARDS :-
First ethics refers to well founded standards of right and wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do, usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to society, fairness or specific virtues.
҉ STUDY AND DEVELOPMENT OF ETHICAL STANDARDS :-
Secondly ethics refers to study and development of one’s ethical standards. It is continuous effort of studying our own moral beliefs and the institutions we help to shape , live up to standards that are reasonable and solidly based.
NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION:
National Educational Association has 2 major principles of ethical standards in education, which are;
1: Commitment to the student, and
2: Commitment to the profession.
THE NECESSITY:
The aim of teaching ethics is the provide the budding the youth:-
to share knowledge, build skills, and develop minds of the young entrepreneurial managers of tomorrow.
BENEFITS:
The ethical education to our youth is the crying need of the hour for it leads to various benefits for the youth of today, some of them are narrated below:
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1: Moral development.
2: Cultural development.
3: Development of healthy and balanced personality.
4: Creation of good citizenship.
5: Resolving conflicts.
6: Co-operative living.
7: Maintaining peace and harmony.
8: Adjustment with environment and its modification.
9: National integration and national development.
THE NEED FOR ETHICS IN HIGHER EDUCATION:
Universities play a significant role in society. The universities influence on society is tremendous. It extends far beyond its walls, since students carry the habits and world-views, they learn from university into society at large. It is possible to argue that many frauds in political and economic life have deeper roots into the universities than we are ready to acknowledge and even imagine therefore, universities must recognize the special responsibilities placed upon them.
What Higher Education Must Teach? :-
Higher education must teach that the ethical virtues are the most important element of personal success, and the neglect of ethics would have negative repercussions in professional life.
In general high ethical values must have the utmost importance in the process of internal operation of every university as well in determining the role a university place in society.
Ethics In Higher Education:
Ethical standards in education contains basic principles, procedures and behavior patterns based on commitment to core values that are deeply rooted in education. Ethical standards enable educators, students and administrators to maintain and promote quality education.
“The principles of ethical conduct lie at the core of teaching profession”.
“With students daily observing a decline in moral behavior from individuals entrusted with leadership positions, measures to improve ethical conduct are needed more than ever in higher education. 10 recommendations for improving ethical conditions are discussed in this discussions (Bialaszewshi,D&Bialaszewshi,M.,2005)
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The introduction of set of ethical norms agreed by both the teaching profession and the public provides are the collective understanding of education role.
Incorporation Of Ethical Virtues In Higher Education:
However essential ethical virtues must be incorporated into the process of higher education and must be fostered by academic staff. Any applied field from traffic engineering to finance and marketing can and should include ethical competencies as an integeral part of each course.
1: In other words , the 21st century human civilization must depend on high ethics as it depends upon professional competency and skills and the sustainable future of all human-kinds, namely the elimination of the deep gaps between poor and rich, “haves” and ”have nots” north and south directly relates to the acquisition of ethical values by the graduates of universities , consequently to the gaining of high values by universities.
But first of all we have to recognize that the normal life , a life of virtue, can be derived from clear and certain principles. This stance necessities the rejection of David Hume’s idea holding that morals are emotional and cannot be proven true that have strong influence over the modern science and academia.
2: In opposite we claim that there is universal morality and the 21st century’s “TRUE UNIVERSITY” must develop the model of “NEW HUMAN”, adhering to this universal morality, characterizing by high ethical values.
Ethical Behaviour In Higher Educational Institutions:
There is not sufficient evidence regarding the implication of codes of conduct in a college. Academic dishonesty has become an important issue in institutions of higher education. Codes of conduct can also provide a basis of ethical behavior in colleges and universities . College codes of conduct tend to follow a “LOW ROAD” approach.
PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS:
Course on ethical principles related to sustainability is useful and potentially critical component to any curriculum intending to prepare future professionals to be effective contributors to a sustainable society . Higher education may adopt the course concepts and learning tools to enhance their curriculum and businesses and corporations will benefit from entry-level professionals with a solid ethical foundations for making more sustainability-oriented decisions.
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Students from diverse fields found the ethical concepts new stimulating and crucial for the careers. Ethical concepts provide a framework for thinking about sustainable practices in their personal and professional lives.
What Universities Must Integrate :
The university as a whole must integrate and transmit ethical values (firstly the honesty and truth-worthiness) and healthy way of life.
High ethical values must be defining features of a “TRUE UNIVERSITY” , which has to shape and form “NEW MODEL OF HUMAN” possessing both professional knowledge and high ethical values coupled with humanistic principles.
Modern Universities And Ethical Values:
We believe that modern universities have to adopt the ethical virtues not as the result of being imposed them from outside, but in contrary they must perform this task by the ethical revival from within , by considering own mission in a society.
Contemporary Universities And Ethical Values:
Contemporary universities have special responsibilities towards society beyond giving mere professional education and raising awareness about some rights and responsibilities. As well as they must direct citizens to behave ethically.
SAFEGUARDS OF ETHICAL VALUES:
In our opinion, academic staff and university administration are centeral actors in safeguarding and promoting high ethical values.
A SET OF OBJECTIVES:
TEACHING ETHICS;-
Teaching ethics in higher education, they concluded, should;
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1: Stimulate the moral imagination of students.
2: Help students recognize moral issues.
3: Help students to analyze key moral concepts and principles.
4: Stimulate students sense of responsibility.
5: Help students deal effectively with moral ambiguity and disagreement.
Although intended for ethics in higher education, this set of objectives seem appropriate at the pre- college level as well, especially in junior and senior high schools.
Defining Features of The “Modern Universities”:
Ethical considerations and values are as important for the internal operations of the university, as they are for the formative role the universities plays vis-à-vis students or for the role it plays in society. This session will focus on how values and ethical considerations can or should serve to define the modern university. In this session the important of leadership both inside as well as beyond the university ,locally and in the more global sense, will be debated as well as the institutional mechanism that may exist(or be exist) to promote values and ethics, the central question is how beyond specific codes of behavior that apply to researchers, students etc. The institution as a whole integrates and transmits such values.
LACK AND ERROSION OF ETHICS:
Unfortunately we may witness the neglect of ethics or when the erosion of ethics in higher education in global scale.
“Universities are not always run ethically.”
In our opinion higher education today faces the substantial problems which must be dealt with and tackled in global scale. One of them is the problem of the lack and erosion of ethics.
What is more tragic that the nihilist philosophies have gained ground universities.
The model of “HYPER RATIONAL INDIVIDUAL” caring about himself or herself become ordinary. Therefore not only the public of the “STATES IN TRANSITION”; but also the public of the developed states grow distrustful of universities. However nihilism cynicism and moral decay.
So it is time for universities to confront with these problems and tackle them. It must be recognized that the high ethical values should constitute the foundation of the higher education.
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The Corrosion Of Ethics In Higher Education:
The American Association of University Professors, the professoriate’s representation organization, states:
“Professors, guided by a deep conviction of the worth and the dignity of the advancement of knowledge, recognize the special responsibilities placed upon them……They hold before them the best scholarly and ethical standards of their discipline….. They acknowledge significant academic or scholarly assistance from ( their students).”
Notwithstanding such pronouncements, higher education recently has provided the public with a series of ethical solecism.
In the book “Academic Ethics”, Neil Hamilton observes that most doctoral programs fail to educate students about academic ethics so that the knowledge is eroding. Lack of emphasis on ethics in graduate programs leads to skepticism about the necessity of learning about ethics and how to teach it. Moreover , nihilist philosophies that gained the currency in academic itself such as Stanley Fish’s “anti-foundationalism” contribute to the neglect of ethics education.
A step in the right direction, a single course in a program otherwise uninformed by ethics will do little to change the program’s culture, and may even engender cynicism among students.
We would argue that like, elementary schools, universities have an obligation to ethically nurture undergraduate and graduate students. Althuogh the earlier years are the most important for the formation of ethical habits, universities can influence ethics as well.
When Universities Become Ethical? :
Universities become ethical when they become communities of virtue that foster and demonstrate ethical excellence.
CAUSES OF CORROSION:
1: Lack of commitment to teaching.
2: Lack of concern for student outcomes.
3: False advertisements about job opportunities open to graduates.
4: Diploma-mill practices, are examples of institutional practices that corrode rather than nourish ethics on campuses.
IMPROVEMENTS:
The following improvements needed in college and universities codes of conduct:
1: Greater emphasizes on pruenting financial, scientific and academic fraud.
3: Establishment of a proper process for implementation of the code.
THE TEACHERS AND THE STUDENTS:
1: Students disobey the code of conduct during day to day life in the university.
2: Attendance and regularity issues on the rise.
3: Teacher’s commitment towards their profession particularly those teachers taking private home tuitions.
4: Internal assessment of teacher is another subject of debate which is being used as double weapon for and against the students by some of our teachers.
ROLE OF A TEACHER:
1: Help create an atmosphere of love, trust and security in the university.
2: Understand the student and its development character and adopt your methods accordingly.
3: Relate value education to concrete situation.
4: Organize value education indirectly through a variety of co-curricular activities.
5: Remember teacher influence the student with her total personality.
6: Example is better than precept. Teacher must be hones in her dealings with students.
7: Remember mere emulation is not education. We want student eventually not to do things in blind faith, custom or traditional but after rational deliberations and thought. This is the essense of the ethical education.
ROLE OF THE STUDENT:
1: Listening to other with the intention of learning with them.
2: Reflecting intentionally to gain more understanding of the complexities of organizational life.
3: Being open-minded and accepting that there are multiple legitimate and viable perspectives and possibilities in any situation.
4: Understanding that there is no right answer or right approach in an ethical situation.
5: Being proactive in anticipating potential ethical or moral dilemmas and finding different ways to learn from different perspectives about how one might address such dilemmas.
With so much of unethical chaos prevailing under the nose of these apex bodies should be we go for teaching ethics and value formation for the youth of PAKISTAN.
Practical aspects relating to the Ethics in Institutes Of Higher Education.
Issues of value and ethics in the education system needs to be resolved if we want to tackle the larger challenges we face today in the education sector like total literacy, better quality of education and so on. Corruption is all pervasive and includes our education also . Pakistan is one of the most corrupt countries in the world. The level of corruption in any organization depend upon 3 factors, the individual’s sense of values, the set of values upheld and cherished by the society and lastly the system itself which will punish the guilty and if it does not then the corruption flourishes.
ROLE OF THE PARENTS:
1: Parents allowing their wards to show off their status, wealth and prestige through unethical ways, may it be cars, clothes and jewellery.
2: Non-availability of parents in the parent-teacher meetings.
3: No monitoring of the performance of the students by their parents.
4: No checks even when their wards are using the hi-tech services particularly internet as a result of which they fall a prey to hacking and other cyber crimes.
5: The working parents hardly have any quality time to spare for their wards.
ETHICS AND VALUE FORMATION:
Generally ethics and value formation goes through 5 different phases before it is matured into worth while asset to the youth and to the entire society as much these could be as follows:
1: Environment of value learning.
2: Raising conscious awareness.
3: Learning and exploring SELF.
4: Knowledge of values.
5: Harmony between values and behavior.
As it has been well said that the true philosophy of education lies in the combination of virtues, values and validity of human life. It is multi dimensional implication. It also implies there is need to understand the criteria that can help in development of human beings. Education is not merely imparting knowledge in a particular faculty or subject or making one fit for securing jobs or farewell in exams it should be trained in logical thinking and should help to coming generations adjust to the available changing environment.
The big missions, aims and objectives of many educational institutions with bold letters interspersed with high flown jargons remains on the walls of these institutions in their chairmen/directors’/principles’ offices and are seldom preached, practices or implemented in true spirits. The institutions should enable students to become contributing member of society by providing knowledge, skills and character development opportunities.
Proper education process is a passport to good, comfortable and secure life. The process is transmitted through the commitment and sharing of “Teacher-Pupil” relationship. The love and joy, values and respect, the basic ethics are getting deteriorated to the rock bottom.
In these days the educational institutions of all kinds of higher education neither cared for the community nor respect for others.
“Ultimate aim of the education i-e the formation of qualities to help student become decent human beings.”
CONCLUSIONS:
As a conclusion we think that high ethics value-based and humanistic principles should define “true universities” have to provide own societies with the best scholarly and ethical standards and make students receives both an excellent academic experience and high ethical standards coupled with positive living experience. In the 21st century the academic staff and administration of “true universities” have to be guided by professional ethics(manifested firstly in total rejection of bribery and plagiarism) as well by value-based principles such as honesty and truth-worthiness, sincerity and humanistic values such as sincerity, warmness, tolerance and brotherhood. In other words the values beyond the “classic” such as responsibility, academic freedom, sharing of knowledge, need to be adopted by “true universities” in their mission. Academic staff and administration have to adhere to high ethical standards and serve as the models for students in different ways.
