Driving Academic Integrity: A Collaborative Approach

As academic integrity faces new challenges and opportunities, Dr Mary-Claire Kennedy, Chair of the National Academic Integrity Network (NAIN), and Laura Flynn, Head of Partnerships at Quality and Qualifications Ireland, reflect on the collaboration and shared responsibility needed to protect educational quality and trust in qualifications.

For those engaged in academic integrity, there is a growing consensus that it entails much more than simply detection and deterrence. It requires learners, educators, organisations, organisations and agencies to work together to strengthen trust in education and respond coherently to social and technological change.

From policing misconduct to sustaining trust

Academic integrity is sometimes discussed as though it begins when something has gone wrong: an allegation is made, a case is investigated or a sanction is considered. These processes are necessary, but they represent only one part of a much broader responsibility.
Dr Mary-Claire Kennedy, Associate Professor at the University of Limerick and Chair of the National Academic Integrity Network (NAIN) emphasises this point explaining, “Academic integrity and academic misconduct aren’t interchangeable concepts. Misconduct concerns behaviours that may undermine learning and assessment. While academic integrity concerns the values, practices and conditions needed to uphold the overall quality and credibility of learning and assessment.”

This distinction is increasingly important in the context of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI). New technologies may change the forms that misconduct takes, but they should not define the entire integrity agenda.

Kennedy highlights a shift from an early focus on detection and monitoring towards a more sustainable approach centred on designing learning and assessment that remain valid, reliable and meaningful in a changing environment.

A responsibility shared across the system

Describing academic integrity as everybody’s responsibility is important, but that principle must translate into meaningful action. Kennedy explains that “Learners must engage honestly with their studies and understand what is expected of them. While educators must communicate those expectations, design appropriate assessments and help learners develop sound academic practices. Organisational leaders must ensure that policies, resources and organisational structures reinforce integrity. Libraries, admissions teams, learner support services, quality assurance teams and other professional services also have important roles.”
Agencies, regulators and representative bodies can support common expectations, national dialogue and opportunities for organisations to learn from one another. The challenge is too broad, and changes too quickly, for any one organisation to address alone.

For Laura Flynn, Head of Partnerships at Quality and Qualifications Ireland, collaboration is essential because academic integrity is an issue that is much bigger than us as an organisation, as a sector, as a nation.

She explains “Although further and higher education operate in different contexts, many underlying challenges are shared, making national and international cooperation indispensable and enabling organisations to turn individual expertise into collective benefit for the wider sector."

Common foundations, locally applied

Collaborative work in Ireland has helped establish a stronger foundation for addressing integrity, misconduct and organisational responsibility. As Kennedy notes, “through NAIN's development of national guidelines and a common lexicon, we have laid really important foundations that create a shared understanding and provide a common ground for organisations to move forward together”. This enables organisations to tailor their policies and procedures to local needs while benefiting from a consistent sector-wide approach.
National guidance can establish expectations and support consistency, but sustainable change depends on engagement. It is most effective when it helps organisations understand what they can do, rather than functioning solely as a list of prohibitions. In academic integrity, clear boundaries must be accompanied by constructive guidance, practical resources and opportunities to learn together.

Everybody’s responsibility, but also somebody’s job

Shared responsibility must be matched by clear ownership. Dedicated academic integrity leadership helps ensure consistent practice, supports staff and learners, and keeps the issue connected to organisational decision-making.

As Flynn explains “Dedicated academic integrity roles can provide continuity, specialist knowledge and a focal point for action. The form of these roles may vary, it could be a standalone position or integrated into existing academic functions. While academic integrity is everyone’s responsibility it is important someone is leading the mission within each institution.” Academic integrity should bring together teaching and learning, policy, regulation, assessment, quality assurance and professional services. Those working in the field need opportunities to undertake research, exchange knowledge and contribute to the wider scholarship of education.”

Kennedy also highlights that ““Academic integrity leadership can be challenging in isolation, which is why networks like NAIN are so important. They create a space for collaboration, shared learning and mutual support, enabling colleagues across the sector to draw on each other's experience and provide the kind of collective leadership that strengthens practice for everyone.”

Learners as partners

Collaboration must include learners as active participants. Too often, academic integrity is framed primarily around what learners do wrong, producing policies that speak about learners without listening sufficiently to them.

“There is a real opportunity to move beyond viewing learners as potential wrongdoers and instead engage them as partners in academic integrity. Their experiences and perspectives can help organisations build fairer processes, clearer expectations and a stronger culture of integrity” explains Flynn.

For both Kennedy and Flynn it is important that organisations and national networks create meaningful routes for learners to contribute. Participation of learners is essential to understanding that experience fully and ensuring it is reflected in policies and procedures.

Sustaining Progress in a Changing Environment

There is no single solution to academic integrity. While GenAI has brought new challenges, organisations must continue to adapt to evolving technologies, learning models and workforce needs.

For Kennedy, this requires fundamental reflection: “What is the function of your institution? Who are you training? What are you training them for?” While education must preserve essential capabilities such as critical thinking, organisations should also be willing to rethink practices that no longer serve their purpose.

Effective responses require a combination of measures rather than a single intervention. As Kennedy observes, “There isn’t a silver-bullet to upholding academic integrity. It’s something we must work on and have open discussions about. Clear expectations, robust assessment design, learner support, staff development and fair procedures all have a role to play.”

Responding successfully will require experimentation, patience and sustained commitment. Meaningful change, Kennedy suggests, calls for “a little bit of bravery and a bit of kindness”, particularly when testing new approaches. It also requires continued investment in the networks, expertise and leadership that enable organisations to learn from one another.

Ultimately, academic integrity underpins both the learner experience and the credibility of qualifications. While collaboration across the sector has delivered significant progress, Flynn is clear that the work must continue: “We need to keep going.”