| The honor code of American college students is a very distinctive academic integrity autonomy system.Developed and implemented independently by American colleges and universities,it requires students to make a commitment to the school,abide by the honor code,be honest and trustworthy,and pay attention to students’ self-management and self-restraint.At first,the honor code was set up in response to the phenomenon of cheating in students’ examinations,but its connotation and extension have gone far beyond the scope of examination management mechanism.Under the circumstance that the academic dishonesty and academic misconduct of college students are becoming more and more serious,American colleges and universities regain their confidence in the honor code and constantly explore new ways out in practice.This study takes the Honor Code as the research object,and mainly adopts the literature research method,the comparative research method,and Historical research method through the generation background,development process,characteristics,and implementation of the honor code,the theoretical and practical level of in-depth research.At the same time,the typical case of American universities is selected to study the experience,practices and enlightenment of American universities under the influence of this system to gradually improve the teaching quality to maintain academic integrity,which is of great significance for Chinese universities to carry out rational reflection on safeguarding students’ academic integrity.The honor code is a specific product of the historical background,which is closely related to the politics,culture and internal environment of the university at that time.The honor code originated at the College of William and Mary and was developed by the University of Virginia,where it is still a tradition.Originally just a gentleman’s contract,the honor code has developed into a mature system by strengthening national and inter-university supervision of academic integrity,reasonably adjusting punishment policies and standardizing enforcement procedures.However,with the development of society and the increase of the number of universities,the original honor system can no longer meet the requirements of academic governance in modern universities.Therefore,the University of Maryland took the lead in establishing an modified honor code,focusing on academic integrity governance,and the design of the system is more and more humanized and rationalized.From 1914 to 2012,the number of colleges and universities with an honor system in the United States increased from 123 to 270.However,in the 2022-2023 Best Universities rankings,many of the top universities do not have an honor system,indicating that they still have doubts about the practical effectiveness of the honor system.The characteristics of the honor system are: student autonomy,participation in the system practice;Positive guidance to build a culture of integrity;The difference punishment,the establishment of integrity file;Improve the system and cooperate with all parties in governance.By analyzing the existing data,it is found that the factors affecting the effectiveness of the honor system practice are mainly reflected in four aspects: policy making,case execution,students’ attitude and the characteristics of institutions.Learning from foreign experience needs rational examination,criticism and reference.To construct the academic integrity governance system in Chinese universities,firstly,we should accelerate the construction of the campus integrity culture and pay attention to the role of cultural education.Secondly,we should actively carry out honesty education,set up special honesty education courses in the school curriculum system,and adopt reasonable education forms to prevent the occurrence of academic dishonesty among college students.Third,improve the academic integrity system of colleges and universities,and the construction of the system focuses on increasing students’ subjectivity,standardizing execution procedures,and grading punishment.Fourth,strengthen the construction of teachers. |
