Aligning Academic Integrity Policy and Practice in Postgraduate Studies: A Focused Analysis on Contract Cheating
Reuben Agbelengor Glover 
Issue: Vol.6 No.7 Article 23 pp.1268 – 1286
DOI: https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.20256723 | Published online 24th June, 2025
© 2025 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
The evolving landscape of tertiary education, shaped by technological advancements, commercialisation, internationalisation and pedagogical shifts, has intensified concerns regarding academic misconduct. In response, institutions have developed academic integrity policies to safeguard educational standards; however, the effectiveness of these policies hinges on their practical implementation. While prior studies have examined academic integrity frameworks, many focus predominantly on traditional forms of misconduct, such as plagiarism, without adequately considering the complexities of how linguistic ambiguity, fragmented policy structures, and stakeholder accessibility impact compliance and enforcement in postgraduate education. This study seeks to fill this gap by critically evaluating the extent to which a Ghanaian university’s academic integrity policy aligns with contemporary challenges, particularly contract cheating. By benchmarking institutional policies against Bretag et al.’s academic integrity policy exemplar and Perkins and Roe’s technological explicitness framework. Through a qualitative case study approach of content analysis, the research explores the extent to which contract cheating is addressed within existing policy structures, highlighting definitional ambiguities, accessibility challenges, and stakeholder engagement deficiencies. Findings underscore a persistent policy-practice gap, exacerbated by fragmented institutional responses and the increasing prevalence of essay mills. This study advocates for an integrated, linguistically inclusive, and technologically responsive policy framework that aligns with contemporary academic integrity challenges in postgraduate education, ensuring sustained compliance and ethical scholarship in the digital era.
Keywords: contract cheating, technological explicitness, academic integrity policy, postgraduate studies, policy-practice
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Reuben Agbelengor Glover is a studio artist, cultural and creative arts policy analyst, art educator, legal practitioner, and artists’ rights advocate affiliated with Avant-garde Lawyers. He is a senior lecturer at the Department of Publishing Studies at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana. He holds an LLB (Substantive Law), a BL (Professional Law), an MFA, and a BA (Art) from KNUST and the Ghana School of Law, Accra. Additionally, he is a certified teacher, having obtained a Teachers Certificate ‘A’ (Post Secondary) from S.D.A. College of Education, Asokore-Koforidua, Ghana. His multidisciplinary research interests reflect his commitment to advancing knowledge and practice in the intersecting domains of art, law, and education, fostering intellectual engagement in policy formation, creative innovation, and legal advocacy within the creative arts sector. Email: reubenglover.cass@knust.edu.gh , reubenglover.rg@gmail.com
Glover, Reuben Agbelengor. “Aligning Academic Integrity Policy and Practice in Postgraduate Studies: A Focused Analysis on Contract Cheating,” E-Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences 6, no.7 (2025): 1268 – 1286. https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.20256723
© 2025 The Author(s). Published and Maintained by Noyam Journals. This is an open access article under the CCBY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
