Project

Ethical people in an ethical university

Owner
Manager
  • Ülle VahtChief Research Administration Officer
  • Birgy LorensThe Chair of the Academic Ethics Committee, Senior Researcher
Responsible department
The main processes
Jira
RAK 69
Link with the Strategic Plan

The management of the university is inclusive and value-based. Management decisions at every level direct the development of the university towards high quality teaching, learning and research.

High quality research is conducted at Tallinn University of Technology, giving rise to applications, teaching and learning as well as research-intensive innovation. Our research outcomes are published in high quality journals, and theses defended at the university are mostly based on said research.

Our graduates are able to solve complex real world problems with an evidence based mindset, practical engineering skills, good self-management and cooperation skills as well as an entrepreneurial drive. They are prepared to take on responsibility for the development of the Estonian economy whilst being in high demand on the international labour market.

Deadline
30/06/2024
Status
Project has been launched

The goal of the project is to create a 2-2.5-hour onboarding course on ethics that provides an overview of the ethical principles that support acting as a researcher, manager, lecturer, learner, person representing the university. In addition to the course, supportive, high-quality content materials will be created for the Schools to harmonize and support university-wide activity concerning ethics; thematic networking events will be organised for the general public as well as for groups more deeply interested in ethics to help raise awareness, to discuss ethical challenges/dilemmas on the example of various ethically complex cases and to create a dialogue among the university staff. Due to greater awareness, infringements of ethical standards will decrease, cases at the university will be addressed in a more informed manner. The number of projects, where the ethical issues have been addressed already during the preparation of the project, will increase. The course will be interactive and comprehensive, can be passed independently, will provide opportunities to take integrated learning bites and personal learning paths, i.e. it will be multimodular (containing a well-structured text, self-assessment and self-grading with automated feedback, video clips (15), illustrations, etc.). The study material will be designed based on the principle of repeatability, which supports user experience and clear and rapid knowledge acquisition. The course is provided in Estonian and English. It is based on the example of the Moodle course of the e-Governance Academy.

Project benefits
  • The Schools will apply a more uniform approach at the university in detecting and processing cases regarding FFP (Falsification, Fabrication and Plagiarism), challenges will be discussed publicly and lessons will be learned more quickly from these cases. In the short term, the number of cases and queries will increase due to increased awareness. Increased awareness will improve the quality of teaching and learning and graduation theses and will reduce plagiarism and other violations of academic ethics at the university. The university’s reputation will improve.
  • Researchers, incl. PhD students, will be more professional in their activities, which is reflected in the preparation of higher-quality projects, where the ethical issues are addressed already during the preparation of the project, and in participation in projects. The number of projects rejected or delayed for ethical reasons will decrease, as will the number of complaints concerning research. Less time will be spent, e.g. on rewriting projects, requesting ethics assessment of a project or activity. Our researchers are ethical partners to all other organizations, and the university’s reputation will improve.
  • Increased understanding of the ethical challenges the university is faced with, the support activities and services, agreements and legislation. In the short term, the number of cases and queries may increase due to increased awareness. E.g. Conflicts of interest, role conflicts will be detected more easily. In the long run, the number of cases of ethics will decrease. The university’s reputation will improve.
Regulations
Results and deadlines
Completion of educational materials in Estonian and English 1.06.2023June 2023
We can finish the webinars and PR activities by 31.12.2023December 2023
The analysis of the success criteria for the use of materials should take place on 14.06.2024June 2024