The Ethical Underpinnings of World Class Universities

Abstract

Considerable attention has been paid to the characteristics of world class universities (Altbach 2004; Salmi 2009; Heyneman and Lee 2012). Separately attention has been drawn to the problem of corruption in higher education, including its definition, the degree to which corruption occurs, and its economic impact (Heyneman 2004, 2010, 2011; Heyneman, Anderson and Nuraliyeva 2008). This paper combines these two lines of scholarship and explores the degree to which world class universities exhibit ethical qualities. The study defines 'ethics' in the management of a university. This includes mission statements which mention ethical issues, transparency in governance and fiscal affairs, codes of conduct for faculty, administrators and students, procedures for adjudication of infractions, and other elements. It then proposes a rating for the ethical infrastructure elements. Universities have been divided into two groups. First are universities listed on the Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) international ranking. The second are random samples of universities in countries which use English, Korean, Japanese, Georgian, Chinese, German, French, and Russian languages as the medium of instruction. The paper poses three questions. First, how common is it for internationally-ranked universities to exhibit ethical characteristics on their websites? The answer is unambiguous: 98% of the world class universities have established an ethical infrastructure of some kind. Second, which areas of the world are more likely to have universities which exhibit a depth of ethical infrastructure elements on their websites? In terms of countries, the most comprehensive ethics infrastructure can be found in Britain, Canada, the U. S., and Japan. Lastly, what is the relationship between the level of international ranking and the depth of ethical ingredients? The strength of the relationship is weak, suggesting that the depth of ethical infrastructure is not an important determinant of ranking. However, the fact that virtually all ranked THES universities, across 40 counties, mentioned ethical infrastructure elements, suggests that having an ethical infrastructure is an important ingredient associated with other elements in a university's reputation. Universities with ambitions of being world class are unlikely to gain that status without establishing an ethical infrastructure. Areas of the world where it is uncommon for universities to have an ethical infrastructure are also areas with high levels of government corruption. In these circumstances, universities will likely be suspected of being corrupt themselves.