Examples Of Ethical Issues In Higher Education

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Ethics Matters Managing Ethical Issues in Higher Education PROF. FORAM A. PATEL Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Institute of Technology, (Department of Applied Scienece and Humanities) Vasad, Gujarat (India) Introduction Higher education is a public as well as a private good and ethical awareness and practice does and should inform everything our institutions are and do. An institution that is consciously and deliberately ethically aware will play a valuable role in pursuing wider community and societal aims. Our staff and students should be enabled to handle the range of ethical dilemmas they will face in an increasingly multicultural society with global dimensions. Higher education should be regarded as an inherently valuable activity that sets out to benefit society. The National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education in 1997 stated “we believe that the aim of higher education should be to sustain a learning society”1. In addition, the Nolan Committee 's First Report on Standards in Public Life sets out seven principles that “apply to all aspects of public life”. These are selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership.2 Maintaining high ethical standards is made explicit, or at least implicit, in the aims and objectives of most institutions. But HEIs still need to ensure that these aims are put into practice in the day to day running of the institution.Ethical issues arise in a wide range of situations, including those