Perception of College Professors on Ethics

Abstract

Teaching is one of the noblest jobs and the responsibility of grooming up responsible future citizens of India is in the hands of Professors. Usually they engage in teaching, research and other institutional activities all through their career. It is expected that they should hold high standards of ethics in performing their duties. It is also an inbound duty of professors to supervise wards, teach them the content of the course curriculum, direct them in their studies and evaluate them periodically based on their performance and promptly rectify their mistakes in the case violation of generally accepted norms. The reputation of an academic institution largely depends on the significant behavior of the Professors. Previous studies have shown that teaching norms are informally defined and poorly observed in the colleges. Increase in violation of Code of Ethics to be followed is due to lack of awareness and improper understanding of ethics. Earlier researches also proved that professors are one of the keen factors that influence the moral standards and ethical behavior of students. In other words, the quality of academicians must improve to achieve the aim of producing responsible citizens in India. One way to address the quality of Professors is by discussing their perceptions on ethical behavior situational questions. This paper discusses the results of samples collected in 9 main institutions in Puducherry only (covering 170 samples). The focus is on certain ethical situations cum behavior and professors’ perceptions about the same. The results reveal that most of the situations discussed are unethical from the professors’ point of view and there is generally NO demographic association between questions on ethical situations and related professors’ perceptions. It is also evident that both ‘institutions’ and ‘individuals’ have a binding influence on one another.