3.2 Step 2: Take responsibility
The next component of EoC is to take responsibility to ensure students’ needs are met. This process involves determining how to respond to the identified needs and requires a sense of agency (Henry & Oliver, 2022). Furthermore, developing an academic integrity culture, policy, and academic misconduct process requires responsible and shared leadership. In other words, all stakeholders must be involved in the decision-making process. Each institution must determine the stakeholders and the level of involvement of each group in the decision-making and culture-shaping processes of the institution. These stakeholders can include people from broader society, bodies, and employers the institution is affiliated with, as well as various internal stakeholders such as councils, faculties, schools, academic staff, support staff, and students. The benefit of including students in this process is that if the rest of the student body knows that the student’s voice played a role in designing this culture, policy, and processes, students will be more inclined to buy-in and follow.
Research has outlined various responsibilities within the framework of an EoC. These responsibilities are also applicable to the institution providing for the needs of students regarding academic integrity, as listed in Table 1.
Table 1 The application of an ethics of care within an academic integrity context.