As part of the Academic Integrity Week, a guest lecture “Don’t plagiarize is not enough: from academic rules to personal values” was held at KhAI.
It was a conversation in which we went far beyond dry terms and looked at honesty in education from a completely different angle — as the basis of professional reputation, trust, and personal choice.
The speaker — Olga GOTS-YAKOVLIEVA, Candidate of Law, Associate Professor at the G.S. Skovoroda KhNPU — helped to understand complex topics in simple, lively, and very relevant language.
A few key insights from the meeting:
- The new Law changes the approach. The Law of Ukraine “On Academic Integrity” (№4742-IX), which will come into effect in the summer of 2026, emphasizes not only punishment, but primarily the formation of a culture of honesty, responsibility, and trust.
- Violation is not only plagiarism. Alienation of authorship, fabrication of data, academic sabotage, and even dishonest use of AI-generated results — all of this destroys trust in science and education.
- Not copying is only the first step. True integrity begins not with fear of sanctions, but with an internal conscious choice to be honest.
- The university shapes the future professional. The habit of working “to pass” very quickly turns into a habit of working “to do”. And professional reputation begins precisely in university classrooms.
We would like to separately note the activity of the participants. A lively discussion unfolded in the webinar chat — they talked not only about the rules, but also about personal responsibility, trust, and the limits of what is permissible in the modern academic environment.
And finally — a metaphor from Ms. Olga, which became a real summary of the meeting: “Academic integrity is like a cup of strong coffee — it needs time to gain depth.”
Thank you to everyone who joined the conversation.