[Best Anti-Corruption Policy]

Future generation raised by ‘Integrity,’ One step closer to society of integrity

- Best Anti-Corruption Policies of Public Institutions in the Education Sector, including Busan Metropolitan City Office of Education, Pukyong National University, etc. introduced -

June 26, 2020

Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission

The Republic of Korea

Busan Metropolitan City Office of Education (BMCOE) and Pukyong National University (PKNU) are taking the lead in fostering a culture of integrity in the field of education through operating the school of integrity and managing academic affairs related thereto, as well as improving fairness in the college admission procedures.

Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC) has been discovering and spreading best anti-corruption policies in multiple institutions in various sectors so that public and private institutions can utilize such policies when they establish and push for their own integrity policies.

ACRC selected this time the cases of BMCOE and PKNU as best anti-corruption policies in the education sector.

BMCOE is operating various kinds of integrity education programs for the future generation to enhance their integrity awareness.

PKNU is spreading the culture of integrity through its comprehensive measures to bolster fairness and transparency in the process of college admission and management of academic affairs in line with growing public interest in fairness in school grading system and college entrance.

(Open! Integrity School) BMCOE runs integrity education programs where students can directly participate and experience various activities to help the future generation develop proper integrity awareness.

‘Open! Integrity School’ for the future generation is an experience-based class as part of a school curriculum for students to experience ‘integrity’ more easily, which includes courses for integrity culture experience, integrity discussion, and integrity literature and arts tailored to the actual conditions of each school.

Students participating in integrity culture training activity learn how to live a life of integrity from ancestors, create their own life motto, and write essays to make self-promises to live a life of integrity based on their motto, while having lively discussions to share their thoughts and values on integrity during the course ‘Integrity Debate Battle: a Moment of Choice.’ In addition, students directly participated in diverse integrity contents contests, such as those for integrity songs, posters, cartoons and user created contents (UCC). In particular, the program ‘Man of Integrity! Create a World of Integrity by Collecting Six Stones of Integrity Values!’ was evaluated as being fun and easy for the students to feel and learn the six values of integrity which might be felt difficult by them.

< Integrity Contents Contest Winning Posters and Cartoons >

(Strengthening Fairness in Management of Academic Affairs) PKNU established an institutional mechanism to manage enrollment in courses and fair grading by professor/lecturer parents-student child. More specifically, it notified students through its course application system or manual that students whose parents are currently teaching at the university as professors or lecturers should avoid taking their parents’ courses and that where there is an unavoidable reason for taking parents’ courses (e.g. required for graduation) the student must report to the administrative office in advance.

Furthermore, PKNU requires professor/lecturer parents to submit grounds for their grading to the head of their department upon finalization of grades for their student child, and if suspicious of fairness, an investigative committee is formed under the supervision of the PKNU president to examine the student’s class attendance and assignment submission record, the leak of exam questions, and the fairness in student evaluation, etc.

(Reinforcement of Fairness in College Entrance Procedures) PKNU overhauled its student evaluation manual to secure fair college admission procedures and prohibit the faculty from being involved in the admission procedures to give any preferential benefits to particular students, and also reformed its similarity checking system manual to prevent plagiarism, ghostwriting and falsehood of application s in the admission process.

Specifically, PKNU required all faculty members and employees who have special relationships with students applying for the admission to the PKNU to avoid or be excluded from the admission process where their acquaintances, including his/her or their spouse’s parents, siblings, children and relatives, are applicants.

The exclusion/avoidance process is comprised of four stages: voluntary reporting, system verification, re-verification, and post-verification. In particular, PKNU conducts strict post-verification for the admitted students so that no preferential benefits can be given in the admission process. If any irregularities are detected in this post-verification stage, PKNU reports it to the Committee for Management of Fairness in the College Admission and take ex post facto measures in accordance with relevant rules and procedures.

< Exclusion and Avoidance Process for the Faculty in the College Admission Process >

In addition, to secure reliability of s (self-introduction letter) submitted by applicants in the school record-based student selection process and improve fairness in the evaluation of s, PKNU reformed its ‘Similarity Checking System,’ which is comprised of multiple stages: checking s subject to verification → verification of s → detection of plagiarism → rechecking → confirmation of plagiarism → re-verification.

< Reliability Verification Process through Similarity Checking System >

PKNU first identifies the s the reliability and truthfulness of which need to be verified and then uses the ‘ASSIST’ system operated by the Korea Council for University Education to check similarity between the s submitted by the applicant and the s in possession of the PKNU or other universities, including s submitted during the year concerned or the past year, to classify applicants who are subject to the plagiarism verification process.

After this stage, it classifies the applicants who have been reconfirmed that he/she plagiarized s after checking that there was plagiarism through self-verification or in-depth interview with applicants, etc. and then, depending on the extent of plagiarism, ghostwriting and falsehood of the s, it determines whether it should give a demerit mark to, or disqualify, the applicants. After the termination of the selection process, it conducts re-verification process to prevent any applicants from being innocent victims and strictly evaluated the submitted s.

Lim Yoon Ju, ACRC Anti-Corruption Bureau director general said, “I hope that more various opportunities can be provided for the future generation so that they can learn through experience the importance of ‘integrity,’ and factors causing unfairness in schools will continue to be improved.”