This blog post at ICAI by Sebastian Burkholdt with a student perspective on academic integrity from a German student in the USA just nails it:
Of course, we were not allowed to cheat in school and university in
Germany, and the consequences could have been as severe as they can be
at American institutions, but I don’t remember ever having had an
explicit conversation with a German teacher or professor about how to be
academically honest. There was no academic honesty policy, no Office of
Academic Honesty, and no official institutional process for dealing
with academic misconduct at my university—at least not that I was aware
of—and I never had any formal education about cheating and how to avoid
it beyond learning how to correctly cite sources. It was just expected
to know how appropriate academic conduct looks like.
Exactly. That is the problem here in Germany. Despite the plagiarism scandals involving politicians, there is very little discussion here about academic integrity. The universities perhaps purchase software and offer a course or two about proper citation. Some universities have writing clinics, but that is about the size of it. Deep and continuous conversations about good academic practice are seldom. Still, I'll keep trying to drag Germany into such conversations!
Posts
