GHANA: University's student honour system under fire

Kajsa Hallberg Adu 14 March 2010

At my workplace, Ashesi University, we aim to educate the future leaders for Africa. Part of that goal is worked on through discussing ethics with students and practising it on campus. After much debate, it was decided that students should themselves take responsibility for fair procedure and take exams without proctoring lecturers.

Instead, they monitor each other and sign a slip to certify that no violations of the rules have taken place. Or they do not sign and are invited for a meeting to discuss what they have seen or heard and the case is taken before the Ashesi Judicial Committee.

This also means all our students are well aware of our policies on academic misconduct. This is the honour system. Similar systems are practiced at other higher education institutions notably Princeton University and Dartmouth College.

However, not everybody thinks this is a good idea. The National Accreditation Board of Ghana (NAB) recently gave us a directive to suspend the honour system. It seems the main objection to the system is the Ghanaian environment.

Read the full article on the blog of Kajsa Hallberg Adu, University World News' correspondent in Ghana.

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