Academic Integrity And The Honor Code

Academic Integrity and the Honor Code In today’s academic world, technology integrates with education more and more each day. This leads to phenomenal educational possibilities, but also increases the inevitable likelihood of academic dishonesty. Time and time again, scholars have been caught cheating, plagiarizing, and acting without integrity in order to secure their places in the educational hierarchy. Because of this, institutions all across the world have enacted and enforce their own honor codes that dictate the fine dichotomy between right and wrong. If these predefined guidelines are broken, severe punishment may result. These honor codes exist to create a fairer environment for all students. While it is ultimately in the hands of

It’s the fault of mankind and society itself that there will always be cheaters in every medium, especially academia. Honor codes exist to prevent dishonesty and uphold integrity across a student body. By merely being integrated in a school’s academic policy, honor codes accomplish three primary requisites for honest student success and hard work. The codes explicitly define what actions are considered dishonorable and detail what constitutes an offense. This causes the students to comprehend the severity of cheating and deters them from taking dishonest actions in the first place. By doing this, it is more obvious to the student body as a whole what actions are not permitted by faculty and what consequences they will be met with. The second important benefit of the honor code is how it eliminates poor study habits developed in high school and strengthens efficient study skills. Honor codes help students learn more effectively simply by existing. The offenders are punished, while the honest, hardworking students are rewarded and held in high regard. This is reinforced by the final benefit to an honor code. Honor codes establish a culture based on integrity. There is great honor is being honest in one’s schoolwork, and an entire student body encourages itself to work harder and avoid cheating. An environment is created in which students monitor each other to avoid cheating in the community. Dishonest activities and plagiarism are met with not only academic consequences, but social ones as well. No one wants to be labeled as the cheater. Honor codes are effective at creating a fair scholastic environment in which all students can flourish. Schools without honor codes are at a disadvantage, and should consider adopting a policy of their own. The Honor Code may be based off of ancient principles, but it has extensive benefits for students, professors, and administrators in a