Title

Establishing a Benchmark for Minimum Standards for Academic Integrity Policies in Europe and Beyond

Overview

PR1 aims to develop a comprehensive and practical benchmark that defines minimum standards for academic integrity (AI) policies in higher education (HE) institutions. Grounded in international best practices, this benchmark will support institutions in creating or refining their policies to foster a culture of integrity and effectively address academic misconduct.

Rationale

Many European HE institutions lack coherent or comprehensive policies on academic integrity. Existing policies often overemphasize detection and punitive measures while neglecting preventive and educational dimensions. This fragmented approach poses a threat to institutional quality and credibility. PR1 addresses this gap by focusing on the three critical dimensions of AI policy:

• Detection (identifying misconduct)
• Reaction (responding to misconduct)
• Deterrence (preventing misconduct)

Activities

To accomplish PR1, the project team will:

1. Create a Higher Education Academic Integrity (HEAI) Policy Corpus

• Collect and compile institutional AI policies from across Europe and internationally.
• Ensure representation of different countries, languages, and educational systems.

2. Conduct Thematic Analysis

• Analyze each policy document using a coding framework that categorizes content into detection, reaction, and deterrence.
• Identify commonalities, gaps, and innovative practices in existing policies.

3. Develop a Benchmark Framework

• Synthesize findings into a practical benchmark document outlining minimum standards for AI policies.
• Include recommendations on structuring policies to balance all three dimensions effectively.

4. Prepare a Guideline Document for Institutions

• Offer actionable insights and examples to help HE institutions develop or revise their AI policies.
• Provide a user-friendly format, accessible to policy developers, administrators, and academic leaders.

5. Webinar for Policymakers

• Organize a capacity-building webinar to disseminate the benchmark and train institutional policymakers on how to apply it.

Expected Outcomes

• A validated, evidence-based benchmark to evaluate and improve academic integrity policies.
• An institutional guideline to support the development and alignment of policies with best practices.
• A greater understanding of policy balance between punitive and preventive measures.
• Enhanced institutional readiness for promoting and sustaining a culture of academic integrity.

Impact

This result will contribute significantly to harmonizing AI policies across Europe and globally, ensuring fairness, transparency, and consistency in addressing academic misconduct. It empowers HE institutions with a proactive, policy-based approach to uphold integrity in all academic processes.