On Tuesday (30/3), UGM held a seminar entitled “Growing Academic Integrity” with Prof. Dr. Sudjito, SH., M.Si. (Professor of FH UGM) and Dr. Lukman, ST., M.Hum. (Secretary of Higher Education Service Institute of Region IV Central Java) invited as speakers. Before starting the webinar, UGM officially launched a Manajemen Etik dan Penguatan Integritas (MEPI) program or Ethics Management and Integrity Strengthening. UGM has built a program to maintain, develop, and institutionalize ethical standards and integrity in UGM that can be accessed through http://mepi.ugm.ac.id. This program aims to educate comprehensive ethics and integrity through a textbook (modul) that consists of two substantial concepts; disciplinary-and-ethics standard and care-and-student body protection.
According to Drs. Agus Wahyudi, M.Si., M.A., Ph.D., as a representative of the UGM MEPI team, the need for ethical education had been necessary since a long time ago to solve any issue regarding plagiarism, sexual assault, the use of illegal drugs, etc. He added that the word promoting in MEPI would sound more appropriate instead of prevention and monitoring, which often refers to advocacy with law enforcement.
“In the word of promote, it can be referred to foster awareness. Moreover, it can also refer to choosing to behave. The selection of this word could lead us to be critical thinking in the ethical and integrity scopes. This is important for us,” Agus explained.
He considered this effort as a precise strategy as a leading university. However, there still must be an improvement from management content, etc. “We could lead with promoting ethical and integrity behavior following the standard. To accomplish it, we need perseverance efforts based on science and evidence.
On the other hand, Prof. Ir. Panut Mulyono, M.Eng., D.Eng., IPU, ASEAN Eng., as the UGM Chancellor, revealed that this program was a manifestation from law No. 11 of 2019 on the national system of science and general policy of UGM 2012-2037.
“UGM as an education institution should maintain and build public trust through management and maintenance of ethical standards and integrity in a scientific, structured, and rational manner,” he explained.
Hence, he initiated to implement it within the UGM environment, and he also expected that all UGM academicians comply with implementing ethical and integrity behavior collectively. The previous commissions, which were FKKMK Research Ethics Commission and RSUP Research Ethics Commission dr. Sardjito, and now additionally there are the other three commissions; the Research Ethics Commission for Agriculture and Fisheries, the Research Ethics Commission for Mathematics and Science, and the Research Ethics Commission for Socio-Humanities have strengthened the occurrence of MEPI.
“These commissions and MEPI hopefully could support culture and ethical ecosystemic in UGM campus as a way to mitigate academic misconduct,” he concluded.]
Author: Hakam