Integrity and Excellence: Antidotes to the Decay of Quality of Life caused

by Academic Dishonesty
Academic dishonesty, a widely-recognized problem in all levels and sectors of
the academia, is an important issue which needs to be combatted and resolved.
Adherence to academic integrity standards is expected of every student; it is
needless to say that such misconduct becomes an instant expressway to
disciplinary sanction and humiliation. Despite policies to combat this dilemma, the
temptation to this misconduct is everywhere. The pressure to maintain a good
impression is prevalent among students. Not to be helped by the fact that
scholarships require minimum grade requirements to ensure retention of privileges.
Bad parenting and teaching culture pressures children to get good grades,
misleading them to believe grades as the ultimate measure of excellence, rather
than focus on the importance of learning.
Postulating that educational attainment is an indispensable qualification to
enter the workforce presumes fundamental principles. From a competency and
social standpoint, study equips a person with the necessary knowledge and skills for
his chosen profession; work strongly defines ones place and importance in the
society. From an ethical and behavioral standpoint, a students habits is tightly
correlated into his later professional ethic. In this sense, character formation is an
essential goal of education. Alarmingly, the tragedy that the diminishing sense of
integrity brings is that not only the quality of professional work is diminished, but a
work devoid of an ethical compass is delivered and others well-being is
compromised.
The antidote to the cheating culture is a firm stand to moral integrity. The
indispensable importance of moral integrity in ones academic and professional
endeavor holds great promise in combatting this conundrum. In the context of my
musings about academic and professional formation, moral integrity, and
excellence, which will be discussed further in this essay, I strongly believe that one
must be trained in the art of excellence and integrity in order to bring ones
academic and professional formation into fruition.
In terms of academic formation, we need to draw a clear distinction between
instruction and education. Educational institutions must be grounded on the latter,
not on the mere accomplishment of the former. For one branch of knowledge
becomes fruitful when its relevance to other branches of knowledge is realized. For
instance in a manufacturing setup, discoveries in human physiology, physics, and
even psychology becomes increasingly important in finding ways on how to increase
motivation and reduce the stress and fatigue experienced by laborers, as evidenced
in ergonomics. The discipline of complex problem-solving taught in mathematics,
sciences, engineering, coupled with the art of decision-making taught in
management equates to people capable of complex problem-solving, as applied in
the design of efficient and sustainable business systems and strategies. On a
practical perspective, knowledge is put into good use if it is used to discover means
on how to better the way we do things.

On the other hand, the same principle applies to professional development.

Study and work are two essential and meaningful activities; the former cultivates
knowledge, the latter, skill and experience. Education, with respect to a chosen
career path, prepares students for their later role in the society as professionals.
It is imperative for work to be done excellently, which means that one must
be knowledgeable on the requirements and must be highly capable to excellently
deliver a specific task. Given this, two elements are necessary practice and hard
work. First and foremost is practice, which aims to further perfect the knowledge or
skill needed to carry out an activity. Practice builds up experience, which in turn is
used to find ways on how to improve the quality of work itself and the ways of doing
it. More importantly, hard work ensures ones commitment to excel since the road
to excellence is a difficult one; a life of struggles, challenges, and failures.
The ultimate goal of a meaningful activity is excellence. In the sense of this
word, I do not only mean perfecting of skillsets nor broadening of knowledge for its
own sake. What I mean and what I need to emphasize is the context of
excellence that entails responsibility to impact and improve the lives of other
people. For instance, an excellent researcher is the most reliable in bringing out
truthful findings; an excellent executive is the most reliable in making difficult
business decisions. An excellent work is the one that brings out the most benefit in
ourselves and others.
The notion of excellence reinforces integrity in our actions. Integrity consists
in being steadfast in achieving our goals (given that the goal is good in itself) in an
upright and honest manner. Hence, a dishonest act undermines and disrespects
everyones opportunity to excel through an unfair advantage on the cheater. The
people deserving of honor for their excellent work is deprived of it since the cheater
outrightly denies the fact that practice and hard work are the only means to
excellence. It also means that the cheater deprives himself of the opportunity to
hone his knowledge and skills and as mentioned, this compromises the cheaters
quality of work in his later professional life. In short, academic dishonesty, or any
dishonest act in general, perverts the essence of excellence and integrity.
I believe that the true purpose of academic formation and professional
development is for us to gain a better understanding of ourselves and our own
contribution to improve the lives of other people. This stems from our mutual
dependence from one another, as our own uniqueness in terms of strengths,
knowledge, and expertise, collectively addresses and complements each and
everyones weaknesses, limits of knowledge, and needs. Students, educators, and
professionals need to understand that the nobility of academic formation and
professional development lies in its ability and potential to progress the quality of
life.