A Policy Evaluation of a Scholarly Ethics and Integrity Requirement for Graduate Programs at a Large Rural Land-Grant Institution

• Main Author: Mayo, Richard Lawrence
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01-01-2022
• Subjects: Education Policy; Educational evaluation; Educational leadership; Higher education
• ISBN: 9798438784944

Graduate school may be the first time in a student’s higher education career where they apply ethical practices in a real-world study. Yet the problem of misconduct in graduate education has existed for decades. Specifically, students in graduate programs in business, pharmacy, and dentistry are the highest graduate student populations to admit to doing some form of cheating in their graduate program. This policy evaluation used Stufflebeam and Coryn’s (2014) context, input, processes, and products (CIPP) model of evaluation to examine the activities and processes of a scholarly ethics and integrity requirement for graduate students at a large rural land-grant institution. A mixed methods study was used to evaluate the ways in which randomly selected graduate programs articulate how they planned to meet the required topics of the scholarly ethics and integrity requirement, and how scholarly ethics and integrity are reflected in those plans. A content analysis was used for the first evaluation question on how the programs will meet the requirement and yielded quantitative data. A qualitative analysis using a priori coding was used to answer the second evaluation question on how scholarly ethics and integrity are reflected in the plans. The findings from this evaluation showed that the required topics of the scholarly ethics and integrity requirement are being met, yet further analysis indicated that how scholarly ethics and integrity are addressed differ by programs and disciplines. Programs relied heavily on program courses to meet the policy requirements. Additionally, the findings highlight a lack of evaluation of policy or process for assuring graduate students are well versed in ethics and integrity. While this study found that the requirements of the institution’s Scholarly Ethics and Integrity requirement were met, the institution has not conducted an evaluation of the policy in practice to learn if students have acquired the skills to conduct scholarly work using standards of ethics and integrity.