Ethical guidelines for teaching and studying

The University of Eastern Finland is committed to following the guidelines of the Finnish National Board on Research Integrity (TENK) on responsible conduct of research. All teachers and students at the university are expected to be familiar with these guidelines published by TENK (RCR).

Universities have a duty to organise their activities in such a way that scientific research, artistic activities, education and teaching follow honesty and responsible conduct of research. The university community values of the University of Eastern Finland include

• freedom of science, teaching and learning
• openness and courage
• responsibility
• impact. (2 § / Universities Act.)

According to the TENK, the key characteristics of responsible conduct of research include

• Integrity.
• General carefulness and exactitude in conducting research.
• Presenting and evaluating information using ethically sustainable methods.
• Researching and evaluating information suitable for the field of research in question and ensuring transparency in publishing.
• Appropriately acknowledging the work and achievements of other researchers.
• Conducting and reporting in accordance to the requirements set for scientific knowledge.

Commitment to good scientific practices promotes the high quality of research, teaching and studies and the reliability of the university activities. It is in the interest of the entire university community that the principles of good scientific practice are respected. Commitment to good scientific practice must be reflected in all activities.

Teachers must follow the principles of good scientific practice in teaching. Teachers acknowledge that they are role models for students and partners who build a good working atmosphere for colleagues. In order to achieve these goals, teachers work professionally in their relations with students and support the honest, critical, creative, open and community approach of the scientific community through their own actions.

• They maintain their own expertise.
• They treat students equally and fairly.
• They do not, fraudulently or without the permission of the persons concerned, use students’ works or study performances in their own activities.
• In accordance with the UEF ethical guidelines, they intervene in fraudulent acts such as plagiarism or fraud in an exam.
• They are responsible for ensuring that students are adequately informed about the principles of responsible conduct of research and their application in their own discipline.
• Teachers supervising the thesis take responsibility for the student’s familiarity with the instructions on responsible conduct of research published by TENK.
• If the teacher acts unethically towards the student, the student can take the matter to the teacher’s supervisor.

The supervisor must take steps to investigate the matter.

• In teaching, teachers’ main goal is to promote students’ learning and achieve their goals and learning outcomes.
• Teachers give positive and constructive critical feedback to students during their studies.
• They respect students’ views and the constructive feedback they receive from the students.
• They guide students to change the way they work if they recognise features that weaken the students’ learning outcomes or interfere with the activities of other students.

• Students’ main goal in studying is to learn and achieve their learning goals.
• Their credits are based on genuine competence.
• They are responsible for following the principles of responsible conduct of research in studies, such as the preparation of papers, writing essays, answering exams and other study performances.
• They are aware of their role as a responsible actor in the scientific community.
• They acknowledge the value of the work done by others and act honestly in all situations.
• Through their own actions, they support the ethical, critical, creative, transparent and communal approach of the scientific community.
• They make sure that all their study works and final projects (thesis) reveal clearly, where the information, original ideas and methods come from, and that their origin is properly referred to.
• Students respect the teaching and research work of the teachers.
• In teaching situations, they maintain a positive atmosphere by being active with knowledge of their responsibilities.
• They provide constructive feedback on teaching.
• If necessary or in doubt, they ask for more information on the correct procedures, using their own initiative.
• During teaching and exams, they work without disturbing the others’ chance to work in peace.
• They carry out independently their own learning assignments and theses, unless cooperation is expressly permitted.

Prohibited activities

For more information and examples see TENKs pages.

Cheating in an exam
Notes and aids cannot be used in an exam unless this is expressly permitted.

Example of a prohibited activity: in a classroom exam, the student searched for information on the mobile phone. The student had forbidden notes with her/him in the exam.

Example of a prohibited activity: assistive devices were forbidden in the Moodle exam. However, during the exam, the student had used the learning material of the course, her/his own notes, textbooks as well as internet pages.

Example of a prohibited activity: the student had used an online translator in a Swedish essay, even though the learning task had to be done using her/his own language skills only.

Prohibited cooperation
Cooperation or the use of external help is forbidden unless this is expressly permitted.

Example of a prohibited activity: students completed learning assignments together, although it was an individual performance.

Example of a prohibited activity: students created a Whatsapp group for a remote exam so that they could ask each other for advice during the exam.

Acting on behalf of another person

Example of a prohibited activity: the student's mother took the remote exam on behalf of the student.

Example of a prohibited activity: the student bought her/his thesis from a ghostwriter.

Plagiarism
It is forbidden to use another person's text in one's own studies without indicating where the information, original ideas and methods come from. Examples of plagiarism: inappropriately quoting a text or part of it, a pictorial expression or translation obtained from another student, the Internet or elsewhere. Students must clearly indicate the sources they use.

Example of a prohibited activity: the student had not marked all the sources used in the thesis.

Example of a prohibited activity: While working on a thesis, the student found a completed master's thesis on the Internet that partly dealt with the same topic as her/his own thesis. The student copied the text of the master's thesis and referred to the sources used in the master's thesis in her/his thesis; the student failed to refer to the thesis s/he had found.

Example of a prohibited activity: while working on the thesis, the student found a Finnish language source on the Internet that had originally been translated into Finnish from an English language source. The student referred to the English language research through the translation of a Finnish language source s/he found, without proper reference to the source.

Example of a prohibited activity: the student found a published text, the idea of which was presented in her/his own text in her/his own words, without reference to the original text.

Example of a prohibited activity: the student completed a learning task by cutting and copy pasting various pieces of published texts s/he found on the Internet and in literature, without proper references.

Passing on your own pieces of work to another student
It is forbidden to hand over completed assignments/pieces of work to another student for fraudulent use.

Example of a prohibited activity: the student had completed the course with an essay. S/he gave the essay to another student, who returned it to another teacher as her/his own piece
of work.

Self-plagiarism
It is forbidden to reuse your own previous performances or to use parts of your previous pieces of work as a basis for new ones without proper reference to the source.

Example of a prohibited activity: the student returned a learning assignment that s/he
had already used on another course.

Example of a prohibited activity: the student's thesis included a section from essays s/he had previously prepared and used, without references to the essays in question (self-plagiarism).

Not doing your part in pair and group work

Students must follow good study practices in all their studies. Fraud is a dishonest act or measure that is done or taken deliberately, out of negligence or with the intent to deceive, and which purpose is to give a false impression of one’s own or another person’s competence.

The guidelines on fraud apply to frauds related to studies and theses (unapproved and approved theses). The guidelines are also applied to the prohibited use of AI applications. The guidelines on fraud are applied to remote and contact teaching.

Section 45 of the Universities Act (558/2009) contains regulations on disciplinary measures against students. Section 45 of the Study Regulations of the University of Eastern Finland contains regulations on the ethical guidelines applied to studies and teaching. This decision specifies these provisions and regulations. In addition to these guidelines, the decision of the Academic Rector on the plagiarism detection system contains regulations on study-related fraud.

If a teacher suspects that a student has committed an infringement related to teaching or research activities, the teacher has the obligation to address the matter immediately in an appropriate manner.

Study-related frauds may be detected retrospectively, e.g., in connection to reviewing learning assignments, or immediately, e.g., during an exam.

A teacher or supervisor may immediately remove from an exam a student who is strongly suspected of fraud or is causing disturbance. If a teacher or supervisor has interrupted a student’s exam due to disturbance or suspected fraud, the teacher or supervisor must record the reason for the interruption and whether the student admits to or denies the disturbance or fraud.

The teacher must determine the type and severity of the suspected fraud after it has been detected. The seriousness is assessed from the perspective of the scale, intentionality, systematicality and recurrence of the fraud. The teacher may clarify the matter by discussing it with the student or by requesting the student to provide a written explanation of the matter, e.g., in an e-mail. If the teacher considers, immediately after detecting the fraud, that the fraud is evident and does not require an additional explanation from the student, the teacher can forward the handling of the fraud to the faculty without obtaining an additional explanation from the student.

The teacher must then take one of the following measures:

1) forward the handling of the detected fraud to the Dean or the director of an independent institute or service centre (language centre, library, study services) in writing, e.g., by sending an e-mail. The teacher must provide at least the following information: the student’s name and contact details, study period, the nature of the suspected fraud and how it is manifested, and the scale and severity of the fraud. The teacher’s notification will later be submitted to the student during the faculty’s disciplinary investigation process.

2) instruct and advise the student on appropriate action if the teacher considers the infringement to be minor or to be due to the student’s ignorance; or

3) state that, based on the investigation, there is no reason to suspect the student of fraud and inform the student of this either in writing or orally. If the teacher has investigated the matter, e.g., by discussing it with the student by e-mail, it is good practice to inform the student by e-mail that the matter has been closed.

The Dean of the faculty or the director of an independent institute or service centre will investigate the suspected infringement, assess it and decide on the use of suitable investigation methods. The student will be sent a written notification indicating the infringement they are being suspected of and the student will be given an opportunity to be heard in the matter. The hearing will, primarily, be implemented so that a written statement is requested from the student. Where required, the hearing may be organised orally. A request for a statement or an invitation to a hearing will be sent to the student for information by post or e-mail. Email can be used if a permission for its use has been obtained from the student. Other parties may also be heard in suspected infringements. Frauds can also be investigated by using the plagiarism detection system or based on video recordings.

If, instead of a primary written hearing, it is decided that the hearing be conducted as an oral hearing, it must be documented in the form of signed minutes. The minutes must indicate who were present, when the hearing was held and what was the purpose of the hearing, as well as the opinion of the concerned party on the matter and their explanations on the reports, which may affect the decision made in the case. The student may bring a person to support them at the hearing.

After the hearing, the Dean or the Director of the independent institute or service centre concerned will decide whether an infringement has occurred (if not, the case will be dropped), whether the infringement is minor or severe, and what further action is needed in the matter, if any. If the Dean considers that no infringement has taken place, the student and the teacher will be informed of this, e.g., by e-mail. An infringement may be considered to be minor, e.g., when it is a one-off act that results from carelessness or ignorance, and the infringement has caused only minor damage. The Dean issues a written notification on minor infringements. Where required, the Dean will also recommend that the teacher rejects the related study attainment or lowers the student’s grade. The person in charge of the course is responsible for rejecting the study attainment or lowering the grade. The sanction given by the Dean or the director of an independent institute or service centre will be communicated to the student, the teacher, the head of the department/school of the degree programme and preparing officers for information and for possible measures.

The decision of a teacher to reject a study attainment and to lower the grade is a decision concerning the grading of a course, for which rectification can be applied from the university’s Board of Appeal.

If the Dean or the Director of the independent institute or service centre concerned considers, after having heard the student, that a more serious infringement has been committed, they will report the matter in writing to the Rector and deliver the documents related to the matter to the Rector. When assessing the seriousness of the infringement, account will be taken of the recurrence, extent and intentionality of the fraud.

The Rector may give the student a written warning, propose to the Board that the student be temporarily suspended, or establish that no infringement has occurred in the matter. A decision made in the matter by the Rector or the Board will be communicated to the student, the teacher, the Dean or the Director of the independent institute or service centre concerned, and the Student and Learning Services of the faculties and independent institutes and service centres for information and for further measures, if any.

A decision on a serious infringement (a written warning and fixed-term suspension) may be appealed against by lodging an appeal to the Administrative Court of Eastern Finland. Appeal instructions must be enclosed with the decision. A decision by the Administrative Court pertaining to a disciplinary action against a student, as referred to in section 45 of the Universities Act, is not subject to appeal.