The Committee is an independent collegial working body established to ensure compliance by the University’s researchers, academic staff, students, postgraduates, and doctoral students with academic integrity, other ethical requirements as fundamental standards of university life, as well as to perform oversight functions regarding the observance of academic integrity within the University.
In its work, the Committee is guided by the Constitution of Ukraine; the Laws of Ukraine “On Education,” “On Higher Education,” “On Scientific and Scientific-Technical Activity,” “On Copyright and Related Rights,” “On Publishing,” and “On Prevention of Corruption”; the Civil Code of Ukraine; the Procedure for Canceling Decisions on Awarding Higher Education Degrees and Conferring the Corresponding Qualification, approved by the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 897 dated 26.08.2021; the University Charter; the Code of Ethical Conduct; the University Academic Integrity Code; the Regulations on Academic Integrity; the guiding principles of the IAU-MCO (International Association of Universities and the Magna Charta Observatory) on institutional ethical codes in higher education; the European Charter for Researchers; the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in Science and the Humanities; the Bucharest Declaration of Ethical Values and Principles in Higher Education in Europe; and the Regulations on the Academic Integrity Committee.
The Committee also relies on authoritative sources in its activities:
- Recommendations of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, the National Agency for Higher Education Quality Assurance, and other state authorities on preventing and detecting academic plagiarism in scientific works, and on developing and implementing the University’s academic integrity system;
- Methodological recommendations for higher education institutions on supporting academic integrity principles prepared within the Academic Integrity Promotion Project (SAIUP), and other recommendations from the American Councils for International Education;
- The Ethical Code of the Scientist of Ukraine, approved by the General Assembly of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine on 15.04.2009 No. 2;
- Management principles of IAU-MCO regarding institutional ethical codes in higher education;
- The Bucharest Declaration on Ethical Values and Principles in Higher Education in Europe;
- Judicial practice of Ukrainian, foreign, and international courts.
The activities of the Committee and its members must comply with the principles of the rule of law, including legality, certainty, and proportionality. Members of the Committee, when reviewing complaints regarding violations of academic integrity, professional ethics, and other ethical requirements and making decisions, must act conscientiously, impartially, and without bias.
The main tasks of the Committee are:
- Organizational and methodological support for the implementation of academic integrity standards adopted by the University;
- Performing oversight functions regarding compliance with academic integrity by all participants in the educational process and scientific activities within the University;
- Exercising authority to detect, establish, and review facts of academic integrity violations and to make decisions on the type of responsibility to be applied to persons who violate academic integrity norms;
- Reviewing complaints in the appeal procedure concerning violations of the University Academic Integrity Code committed by persons studying or working at the University, providing recommendations for appropriate decisions, and imposing corresponding sanctions on these individuals.
In performing its tasks, the Committee acts in coordination with the University’s Academic Integrity Promotion Group.
The Committee, together with other University officials (lecturers, supervisors of qualification (thesis) works, heads of departments, deans, vice-rectors of the University, heads of specialized academic councils, conference organizing committees, journal editorial boards), who are granted separate powers to apply the provisions of the Academic Integrity Code, is an authorized body for holding individuals academically accountable and reviewing appeals against decisions made by these officials.
The Committee has the right to:
- Receive and review applications and petitions regarding violations of academic integrity principles, analyze them, prepare corresponding conclusions, as well as accept and review appeal complaints against the decisions of the officials mentioned in clauses 2.3 – 2.6 of these Regulations, and make decisions regarding them;
- Involve University staff, experts from various fields, and use technical and software tools to reliably establish facts of academic integrity violations based on submitted applications;
- Provide recommendations to the Rector and the University Academic Council for making appropriate decisions and imposing sanctions on individuals who have violated academic integrity norms.