IIEP contributes to the International Short Course on “Corruption, Culture and Moral Psychology: From Research to Policy”

30 November 2017

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Group photo from the course in Yogyakarta, Indonesia in October 2017.

IIEP was invited to contribute to the International Short Course on Corruption, Culture and Moral Psychology: From Research to Policy in October 2017. The course, held in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, was organised by Universitas Gadjah Mada with the support of UNODC and the Interdisciplinary Corruption Research Network (ICRN).

Inspired by the ICRN’s approach to promoting an interdisciplinary look at corruption, the 30 international participants attended lectures drawn from a wide variety of disciplines such as psychology, economics, and social science. The course provide an opportunity for the students to discover the research methods of the different disciplines, and also sought to bridge the gap between theory and practice by inviting contributions from practitioners who are active in the fight against corruption.

Katja Hinz, Associate Research Officer at IIEP, introduced the subject of ethics and corruption in education and presented the different tools developed by IIEP in order to combat this specific form of corruption. She was impressed by the implication of the participants and their desire to apply their knowledge to real-life situations. “Talking about corruption in the education sector was very relevant in the context of this course," said Hinz. "Students were very eager to use their own experience to identify the main corruption risks in their respective countries and to identify tools to tackle these problems.”

Jan Groeschel Bachelor of Psychology and of Commerce at Macquarie University, Sydney found that “IIEP’s presentation opened my eyes to the different forms corruption can take in the education sector from cheating at exams to fraudulent textbook contracts. The session made me aware of the issues around equitable education access and how far reaching corruption in education can be. I found the ETICO website extremely useful in learning more about corruption in the education sector of my home country, Australia but also to compare different countries. It has a clean design, it’s easy to search and I’m still going through all the resources that are available. This workshop, by Katja Hinz, has inspired me to pursue corruption in an academic fashion and to integrate anti-corruption strategies in my future work in organisational psychology.”

At the end of the two weeks, the participants were equipped with a deeper understanding and expanded set of skills to continue in their engagement in the fight against corruption. The course also built the foundation of an interdisciplinary network for collaboration and exchanges across disciplines to advance anti-corruption research and action in Indonesia.

This post first appeared on IIEP's ETICO platform.