Indicators of ethical governance in higher education

Document Type : Original Article

Abstract

This research is descriptive in purpose, seeking to describe governance and ethics in the university. Data collection was initially conducted through a library method using written and electronic sources, and then complemented with visual and auditory evidence. Following this stage, each of the dimensions and metrics of ethical governance in the university was aligned, through an in-depth study, with the novel concepts of meta-governance and the tools of soft and hard governance, and a logical classification related to these concepts was performed.

The results of this research indicate that the indicators of ethical governance in academic environments primarily summarize into the following aspects: 1. Ethical awareness, decision-making, and participation; 2. Ethical infrastructure, ethical culture, and leadership style; 3. Ethics of faculty members; 4. Ethics of adjunct professors; 5. Technology ethics in the university; 6. Ethics of staff; and 7. Ethics of students.

Among the limitations of this research are the challenges that university presidents and boards of trustees face in decision-making at ethical crossroads, which have not been precisely addressed in this model. Also, due to time constraints, the relationships between the components of this model and the dimensions of good governance have not been examined. Another limitation of this research is the lack of sufficient information on ethical anomalies and vices in the university environment, as the stigma associated with these issues makes precise information less accessible. It is suggested that researchers tailor each of these metrics to the Ministry of Science, universities, research institutes, and other specific academic centers, and subsequently subject them to measurement and evaluation.

Keywords

References

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Governance and Development
Volume 6, Issue 2
August 2026
Pages 315-343

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