The user’s guide to high ideals

As institutions face greater commercial and funding pressure, a written ethical behaviour policy can help the reality match the rhetoric, says Barbara Blake

Higher education is an inherently ethical activity. The maintenance of high ethical standards is usually made explicit, or at least implicit, in the aims and objectives of most institutions.

However, this does not mean that higher education institutions necessarily adopt an ethical course of action in all circumstances. Ethical issues arise in a wide and complex range of situations, including those relating to an institution’s treatment of its employees, students and other stakeholders. The modern higher education institution is clearly very much “in the world” and subject to a range of conflicting pressures and interests. Indeed, in the rush to be relevant and contribute to Britain’s economic performance, some deeper fundamental values are in danger
of being forgotten - at least by some politicians and even by some students.

A consensus view emerged from a discussion at St George’s House, Windsor, in March 2004, organised by the Council for Industry and Higher Education, St George’s and the Society for Research into Higher Education. This mutually agreed position holds that universities “enshrine certain fundamental values: of freedom of inquiry and expression; of tolerance and mutual respect; [necessarily they encourage] impassioned debate in a search for truths”- H igher Education and the Public Good , CIHE, March 2004.

At the same time, it was recognised that institutions are under increasing pressure to be more commercial, to diversify their income sources, to develop employable graduates, to contribute to local and national economic performance and to participate fully as members of a wider global society. One of the outcomes of the Windsor discussion was a recommendation that the CIHE work with the higher education sector on a framework to help individual institutions develop their own guides to ethical behaviour. This framework might suggest how the process should engage all staff and other key stakeholders and how the resulting guide might be embedded, understood, acted upon and reviewed so that the reality matches the rhetoric.

Within a climate of increased responsibility and risk, it was agreed that institutions should be clear about how their missions and values interrelate. Making explicit what is often implicit can help all staff and students. Being transparent about where and how values might come into conflict with commercial pressures and advising on how these conflicts might be dealt with can help an institution avoid litigation.

Relationships between an institution and its funding sources and commercial partners provide scope for conflicts of interest and other dilemmas that raise ethical issues. Marketing practices and admissions procedures may raise questions about honesty, fairness and, as current court cases attest, whether the deal offered to students can be delivered fully. Upholding academic freedom can have legal and ethical ramifications. Ethical issues faced by modern higher education institutions can range from plagiarism to public interest disclosure and from race equality to confidentiality of information.

With support from the Higher Education Funding Council for England’s Leadership, Governance and Management Fund, the CIHE is working in partnership with the Institute of Business Ethics, the Committee of University Chairs, the Centre for Business and Public Sector Ethics - Cambridge, Universities UK, the Standing Conference of Principals, the Higher Education Academy and other key stakeholders to develop a practical “how to” guide on ethics for universities and colleges. There is much good practice within institutions and across the sector. This was highlighted in the responses to the first consultation earlier this year when about 100 institutions submitted information on their procedures, ethics committees and codes. However, it was apparent that much of what was being done was ad hoc and sometimes a response to specific legal requirements or problems that had arisen, rather than a considered and comprehensive institution-wide approach.

A second round of consultation on the draft guide has just been completed. The outcomes will be presented at a conference, Ethical Issues in Higher Education , to be held at the London offices of Anglo American on June 28. There, the key issues that have been identified can be discussed, current good practice shared, the full Illustrative Framework (summarised for the first time in this supplement) scrutinised and progress made to develop the final guide. Further information on the conference is on the CIHE website, www.cihe-uk.com/ethics .

A guide that is not prescriptive should help institutions develop their own signature guides. It should help the sector to take a lead internationally, enhance its standing and make the UK even more attractive to students and investment from overseas.

Higher education institutions are deeply ethical organisations engaged in ethical debate and ethical issues. The “how to” guide should help demonstrate and remind others of these deeper purposes.

Barbara Blake is director of programmes for the Council for Industry and Higher Education.

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