6
INFUSING ETHICS
INTO EVERYDAY PRACTICE
IN HIGHER EDUCATION
EM Lemmer6.1 Introduction
Ethics in academia can be broadly understood as decision-making,
associated with the university’s tripartite mission of teaching, research
and community service, which is based on moral principles or values,
and which determines how members of the university community
behave and treat others: with a view to the common good (Wagner,
2011). During the last three decades explicit debate about the role of
ethics and values in higher education has gained prominence (Keenan,
2015) as evidenced in the proliferation of written codes of ethics and
value statements, the establishment of ethics committees to grant
clearance for research activities and the appointment of legal experts to
deal with misconduct litigation, which ranges from professional
misconduct, cheating, plagiarism to the misuse of university resources
and misappropriation of funds (Heyneman, 2011). Notwithstanding
gross violations of ethical behavior, what comprises everyday ethical
academic conduct is not clear-cut and academics may differ in the
identification and classification of appropriate values in higher