Introduction
I believe that academic integrity is one of the most important virtues that institutions of higher learning should practice. It is a requirement for institutions that are committed to truth and intellectualism. Academic integrity is defined as being responsible and honest when doing scholarly work (Umuc 4). I believe that students and academicians in general should adhere to rules of honesty in their scholarly work which implies that their scholarly work must be original.
Any contribution that comes from another source other than the efforts of a student should be acknowledged in the right manner. Institutions of higher learning are important in provision of knowledge and skills hence there must be policies that guide academic integrity. I believe that academic integrity is enhanced by high quality measures that enable students to learn in a challenging environment.
Body
Societies rely on trust for their continuation and as their level of complexity increases, more trust becomes essential. For instance, when patients go to the hospital for treatment, they are not aware of the academic backgrounds of the doctors since they were not with them in their medical schools. The patients were not there to witness when the doctors were learning surgery and other medical procedures.
What they do is only to trust that the doctors are well trained and equipped with the right knowledge to help them recover from their illnesses. They trust that the medical schools the doctors attended had policies that ensured that the students maintained academic integrity in their studies. I believe that this is a good example of how important academic integrity is in building trust in human societies. If there is no academic integrity, the patients would not trust the doctors to restore their health.
I believe that academic integrity can be promoted and facilitated in institutions of higher learning. In these institutions, it is important to build trust by encouraging students to earn it rather than waiting for it to given to them. I believe that students should be well informed of what is required of them and the risks they face if they lack academic integrity. I believe that academic integrity is very important and should be encouraged because lack of it may lead to undesirable results.
There are various academic issues that are perceived as lack of academic integrity. One of the academic issues perceived as lack of academic integrity is plagiarism. Plagiarism means copying the ideas and information of another person without properly acknowledging the source. I believe that plagiarism is a serious academic offence since it may lead to severe penalties.
The first penalty that may arise from plagiarism is expulsion from the learning institution. Students who are accused of plagiarism are exposed to the risk of being expelled from the learning institutions (York University 5). I believe that expulsion is a severe punishment arising from lack of academic integrity and learners should avoid it at all cost. Professors may also be involved in plagiarism by cutting and pasting information from other people without acknowledging its source properly. This may cause the professors to lose their jobs. I believe that plagiarism should be discouraged because it is also a source of ethical humiliation. Individuals who are caught having stolen ideas and information are viewed as dishonest by the society and this is very humiliating (Bleeker 80).
Conclusion
I believe that academic integrity is an important aspect that should be exercised by institutions of higher learning. Students and all those involved in academics should be informed of the importance of academic integrity in building trust. I believe that learners should be honest and responsible for their scholarly work because they are expected to exercise what they learned after school. If there is lack of academic integrity which involves incidents such as plagiarism, the implication is that the competence of intellectuals produced by institutions of higher learning will be questionable.
Works Cited
Bleeker, Karen. To Be Honest: Championing Academic Integrity in Community Colleges. New York: Amer. Assn. of Community Col, 2007. Print.
Umuc. Academic Integrity and Plagiarism in the Classroom. 2003. Web.
York University. The Impact of Plagiarism. n.d. Web.