The Law of Ukraine “On Academic Integrity” dated December 18, 2025, No. 4742-IX (hereinafter, the Law) has entered into force. Its provisions are also applicable to the implementation of internal and external education quality assurance procedures.
Academic integrity is an important prerequisite for high-quality educational and scientific (creative) activities, for obtaining a high-quality education, for establishing public trust in the results of learning and scientific (creative) achievements, and for fostering respect for human honor and dignity.
Academic integrity is a set of values, principles, and rules that should guide those involved in academic activities. Each participant in the educational process is obliged to adhere to the values, principles, and rules of academic integrity in their activities.
The basic values of academic integrity are:
- honesty of academic activity participants towards themselves and others;
- trust in the results of other people’s academic activities, in particular that these results have been obtained honestly and in compliance with the relevant rules and standards;
- respect for the honor and dignity of oneself and other members of the academic community, appreciation of diversity of opinion, respect for the intellectual property rights of others;
- fairness in the attitude of academic entities towards each other, in particular the creation of fair policies for educational institutions and scientific institutions, consistent and impartial response to violations of academic integrity, and fair assessment of the results of academic activity;
- responsibility of academic entities to themselves, to each other, and to society for the results of their academic activity;
- consistency in the ethical conduct of academic activities, regardless of external and internal incentives to violate academic integrity and the presence or absence of external control;
- determination in shaping and establishing a culture of academic integrity, and courage in defending academic integrity in academic activities.
Responsibilities of participants in the educational process
The formation and establishment of a culture of academic integrity in an educational institution is the responsibility of management and teaching staff.
Heads of educational institutions are obliged to ensure the functioning of the academic integrity system of the educational institution by:
- organizing the development, timely updating, and publication of internal acts on academic integrity issues;
- systematically conducting activities to promote, propagate, and raise awareness of the values, principles, and rules of academic integrity, studying and reviewing domestic and foreign experience in ensuring academic integrity, etc.;
- ensuring access for participants in the educational process to specialized software for detecting signs of academic integrity violations (if necessary);
- ensuring the mandatory recording of reports of academic integrity violations;
- organizing the verification of reports of academic integrity violations by candidates for positions;
- ensuring proper consideration of reports of academic integrity violations, bringing to justice those who have violated academic integrity, documenting decisions, and posting them on the educational institution’s official website.
Teaching staff are required to:
- treat students and other participants in the educational process with respect;
- base their activities on reliable and accurate data based on research results and reflecting the current state of knowledge on relevant issues;
- verify the reliability and accuracy of information provided to students and other participants in the educational process;
- clearly define the expected learning outcomes, set clear requirements for the completion of educational tasks, and have a transparent system for assessing the learning outcomes of students, based on clear and published criteria;
- assess the academic works and educational assignments of students in good faith, ensuring that there are no signs of academic misconduct;
- promote academic integrity among students by setting an example;
- stimulate and encourage students to adhere to academic integrity;
- respond in a timely, impartial, and non-discriminatory manner to any manifestations of academic misconduct, stop such violations, and apply measures to students in response to violations of academic integrity.
Students are required to:
- complete each academic assignment independently, except in cases where its completion requires the participation of several people, the rules for completing the relevant assignments allow for assistance from other people, the use of auxiliary materials and resources, including Internet resources;
- cite the relevant source of information when using the results of another author’s intellectual creative activity (texts, images, ideas, developments, statements, information, opinions, etc.) in their own academic work;
- use their own previously created academic work (in whole or in part) only if permitted by the terms of the academic task.
Parents and other legal representatives of minor students are obliged to:
- instill in their children an awareness of the need to adhere to the values, principles, and rules of academic integrity;
- encourage and motivate their children to adhere to academic integrity;
- promote academic integrity among their children.
Sanctions are provided for violations of academic integrity.
A person who has reached the age of 14 at the time of committing a violation of academic integrity may be held academically responsible.
Academic integrity in the education quality assurance system
The values, principles, and rules of academic integrity must be followed by persons who carry out expert activities within the framework of education quality assurance and state supervision (control) in the field of education. This refers directly to experts in institutional auditing of educational institutions, certification of teaching staff, accreditation of educational and professional programs, and other procedures for ensuring the quality of education.
Educational institutions are required to have a system to ensure academic integrity, as defined by their internal regulations, which is part of their internal system for ensuring the quality of education.
Amendments have been made to special legislation, according to which, in particular:
- the internal system for ensuring the quality of education in general secondary education institutions must include an internal system for ensuring academic integrity (part two of Article 42 of the Law of Ukraine “On Complete General Secondary Education”);
- professional pre-higher education institutions are required to have an internal system for ensuring the quality of professional pre-higher education, including an internal system for ensuring academic integrity (part four of Article 30 of the Law of Ukraine “On Professional Pre-Higher Education”).
The academic integrity system includes:
- internal policies for the formation, assurance, and promotion of academic integrity;
- requirements for the creation, publication, implementation, and evaluation of academic works and educational projects in terms of ensuring academic integrity;
- measures aimed at forming and establishing a culture of academic integrity;
- the procedure of formation, the powers and responsibilities of the authorized bodies;
- the powers and responsibilities of authorized persons;
- the procedure for considering reports of violations of academic integrity, in particular, guarantees respect for the rights of participants in the educational process during the consideration of such reports, the procedure for making decisions on the application of measures to respond to violations of academic integrity, and the procedure for appealing such decisions.
In case of a violation of academic integrity by the head of an educational institution (except for higher education institutions), anyone may submit evidence in writing (in paper or electronic form) to the territorial body of the State Service of Education Quality of Ukraine.
The law will come into force on July 31, 2026. Until then, the government must coordinate regulatory acts or adopt new ones to implement the law.
Source: https://sqe.gov.ua/en/academic-integrity-an-important-prerequisite-for-high-quality-educational-activities/