Ethics And Moral Values In Higher Education

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this paper is to discuss ethical values in higher education, focusing on the Reasons for and the Effects of Ethical Challenges in Higher Education. Like pressure, finance, privatization, technology. Ethics in Higher Education When most people think about ethics they think of how actions are determined to be either right or wrong. Higher education is leadership education. The values and virtues practised in universities heavily influence the future leaders. And discussing some of professional codes of ethics. Ethics in Higher education seeks exactly to become a vehicle to make people original and whole in thought and belief. In order to educate, we need to present the past in a suitable form. If young people are not taught about the past and tradition, they shall have a future without guide and may grow up either unbalanced or sceptical. In educating the youth, the past is presented within the context of life where experience speaks for itself.

KEYWORDS: Ethics, Moral value, Higher Education

INTRODUCTION

Higher education is leadership education. The values and virtues practised in universities heavily influence the future leaders. Many institutions of higher education show excellence not only in academic subjects, as green campuses, with manifold ethics curricula and in their community engagement, but also in the value-orientation of the Board and teaching staff as well as students. But, additionally, in many universities and schools around the world, fundamental values and virtues are violated: cheating, plagiarism, unethical research, nepotism in staff recruitment, corruption in exams, sexual harassment or simply the lack of ethics curricula give then the signal to the future leaders that ‘this is how the world functions’ and only with unethical behaviour can one achieve profession. . In the media reporting on local and international cases of scandals around the themes of corruption, bad governance, abuse of public trust, value-less lifestyles, unethical behaviour, conflicts of interest and insider dealings, The education of the heart of man in its originality as creation made it is one that calls for a genuine concern. Unfortunately, the opposite is the case as many modern societies through education destroy the human heart and innocence. Higher education in general can and has to play a key role in this process of balancing global and contextual perspectives in building identities through research, teaching and training. Even if open and distance education seems to be delocalised and disconnected from a specific context, it can and has to promote contextual identities by reflecting and researching on it.

“The education of all children, from the moment that they can get along without a mother’s care, shall be in state institutions.” – Karl Marx

Ethics Matters:

Worldwide, information is multiplying at a phenomenal rate. Globalization has increased the social space, leading to borderless boundaries on the financial, economic, social, ecological, political and cultural dimensions of traditional societies.

Ethics in Higher education seeks exactly to become a vehicle to make people original and whole in thought and belief. In order to educate, we need to present the past in a suitable form. If young people are not taught about the past and tradition, they shall have a future without guide and may grow up either unbalanced or sceptical.

In educating the youth, the past is presented within the context of life where experience speaks for itself. For the purposes of emphasis therefore, education must be critical. The young student must be exposed to the past through the experience that can propose that past and Justify it through life experience.

Man is like a rough diamond and requires filling and polishing before all his faculties can function. Education is polishing and filling of human personality, so that it reaches its fullest development. It enables one to lead a better physical, intellectual and spiritual life. According to Socrates –“Education is bringing out of the ideas of universal validity which are latent in the mind of every man.” Concept of Ethics, Moral values and Education: Ethics is a branch of philosophy. That deals with the morality; the word ethic has been derived from the Greek word ‘ethos’ which means character. Aristotle was one of the first great philosophers to define the ethics.

But additionally, in many universities and school around the world, fundamental values and virtues are violated; cheating, plagiarism, unethical research, nepotism in staff recruitment, corruption in exam, simply the lack of ethics curricula gives then the signal to the future leaders that “this is how the world functions” and only with unethical behaviour can one achieve professional success.

 Ethics education is opportunity for a new value orientation. Such education ensures the training of both the teacher and the student, develops new technologies and conclusively allows a new vision, a new policy, a new market new resources and a new system.

Reasons for and the Effects of Ethical Challenges in Higher Education:- What are the reasons for and the effects of this development? Let me just mention four of them:

1. Pressure: For many parents and societies, higher education seems to be the only valuable goal. The pressure is so high that young persons and their parents use all means at their disposal to get a bachelor or master degree. The effect of this pressure and of one sided public educational strategies is that we have millions of jobless academics and not enough young people with vocational training. But studies show that innovation of a country does not only depend on a strong academic sector, but on balanced educational instruments.
2. Finance: In many countries, academic staff is not well paid compared to other sectors such as the private sector. With the minimum income, teachers are tempted to increase income by receiving bribes in the form of money and sexual services.
3. Privatisation: The boom of new, mainly private institutions of higher education in many countries is a positive sign that there is a need, a market and entrepreneurs and investors who are willing to make the most of the opportunity and to take the risk. But strong competition leads also to the temptation of fast success, cheap solutions, lack of qualified teaching staff with integrity and a lack of a sustainable ethical foundation of these institutions.
4. Technology: Information and Communication Technologies (ITCs) represent a huge potential for higher education and are obviously the back bone of open and distance learning education. The advantages and future potential are still huge. But each technology is ambiguous when looked at from an ethical perspective.

The context of a new vision for education which calls for mindset shift from reading and writing to skills acquisition with relevance for daily life and society becomes imperative. Ethics education is opportunity for a new value orientation. Such education ensures the training of both the teacher and the student, develops new technologies and conclusively allows a new vision, a new policy, a new market, new resources and a new system.

Ethics in Higher Education When most people think about ethics they think of how actions are determined to be either right or wrong. Ethics in Higher Education When most people think about ethics they think of how actions are determined to be either right or wrong. The questions that spring from this reflective process rely on the systematization, justification, and application of various guiding theories (Deigh, 2010). Many in western society are influenced by Aristotle’s thought that equals should be treated as equals.

“Education should train the child to use his brains, to make for himself a place in the world and maintain his rights even when it seems that society would shove him into the scrap-heap.” – Helen Keller

Professional Codes of Ethics

In addition Watson (2007, pp. 372-373) distils “ten commandments” for academe:

1. Strive to tell the truth.
2. Take care in establishing the truth.
3. Be fair
4. Always be ready to explain.
5. Do no harm.
6. Keep your promises.
7. Respect your colleagues, your students, and especially your opponents.
8. Sustain the community.
9. Guard your treasure.
10. Never be satisfied.

Higher education in general can and has to play a key role in this process of balancing global and contextual perspectives in building identities through research, teaching and training. Even if open and distance education seems to be delocalised and disconnected from a specific context, it can and has to promote contextual identities by reflecting and researching on it. In a more specific way, ethics in higher education is a central part of this objective.

Conclusion

Man is like a rough diamond and requires filling and polishing before all his faculties can function. Education is polishing and filling of human personality, so that it reaches its fullest development. Concept of Ethics, Moral values and Education: Ethics is a branch of philosophy. That deals with the morality; the word ethic has been derived from the Greek word ‘ethos’ which means character. The purpose of this paper is to discuss ethical values in higher education, focusing on the Reasons for and the Effects of Ethical Challenges in Higher Education. Like pressure, finance, privatization, technology.

References

1. Lucas, N. (2009). Ethics in Higher Education: Personal, Organizational, and Institutional Realities,.
2. Keller, P. A. (20). Time for Higher Education to Make Ethics the Top Priority, Ethics Reform in Higher Education, 1-2: Mansfield University of Pennsylvania.
3. Pabla, M. S. (2011). The Corrosion of Ethics in Higher Education: A Challenge of 21st Century, International Journal of Management & Business Studies, Vol. 1, Issue 2, June.