Initiatives for the tertiary students to counter corruption through education.

 

As the final stage prior to peoples’ entry into the workforce, tertiary education10 provides an important opportunity to nurture the ethical minds and professional identity of citizens and future leaders. The UNESCO World Declaration on HigherEducation for the Twenty-First Century states that training people in the values that form the basis of democratic citizenship is one of the core missions of higher education. Around the world, higher education institutions have adopted different approaches to ethics and anti-corruption teaching and training. In some cases, academic disciplines, such as law, teaching, medicine, public administration, and business, incorporate ethics components into their curricula. Some mainstream these topics across the curriculum, while others rely on specialized courses, guest lectures, conferences, workshops, ad hoc events, or experience-based learning programs. The UNODC GRACE initiative supports these efforts in various ways. The GRACE KnowledgeHub offers various free, open-source materials that university lecturers and trainers can use in their academic courses and professional trainings to transmit knowledge on corruption-related issues. Furthermore, the UNODC Anti-Corruption AcademicNetwork brings together more than 1,000 academics, researchers and experts interested in education and research on anti-corruption, integrity and ethics. It provides its members with a platform to exchange knowledge, materials and good practices to facilitate related teaching and research. A unique institution in this area is the InternationalAnti-Corruption Academy, which was founded in 2010 in partnership with UNODC, INTERPOL, the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), and the Republic of Austria. This international organization based in Laxenburg, Austria, offers post-graduate master’s programs in English and Spanish. Its courses are open both to government officials and professionals from the private sector and civil society. Since its creation, it has delivered and facilitated anti-corruption education and training for over 5000 professionals and practitioners from 168 countries. Whilst the goals, methods, and scope of ethics instruction at tertiary level differ, efforts are ongoing to develop a consensus. One example is the so-called Poznan Declaration adopted by the Compostela Group of Universities, the World University Consortium, and the World Academy of Art and Science in 2014. The declaration highlights that the educational system has been producing individuals equipped for pursuit. The UNESCO defines tertiary education as all types of studies, training or training for research at the post-secondary level, provided by universities or other educational establishments that are approved as institutions of higher education by the competent State authorities. IACA (2023), Who we are, of narrow self-interest and calls on higher education to adopt a more holistic approach to ethics and integrity for all students. Amongst others, this should be done through: 

• A cross-faculty approach to include ethics and anti-corruption education in all university curricula; 

• Encouraging lecturers and professors to facilitate the incorporation of ethics issues in their classes; 

• Emphasizing ethics as the cornerstone of professional identities, which set the boundaries of future acceptable behavior; 

• Ensuring transparency, accountability, and impartiality in teaching, student recruitment, student assessment, and research, as well as in the award of degrees, employment, an student recruitment, student assessment, and research, as well as in the award of degrees, employment, and promotions.