Phenomenology of ethics in the university: Facilitators and barriers

This study aimed to identify the facilitating and inhibiting factors of students' tendency towards ethics. A qualitative approach with a descriptive phenomenological method was employed. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews with 98 Iranian faculty members, university administrators, experts, staff, and students who were selected through criterion sampling. The findings suggest that there are eight facilitating factors such as “structural, functional, social, cultural, personal, religious, study-research-driven, and educational" factors, and there are also nine hindering factors (obstacles) such as “structural, social, performance-related, political, personal, functional, conceptual, informative-cognitive, and cultural” factors. Drawing upon the understanding of a wide range of academic activists, this study identifies new and more complete dimensions and components of the factors concerning the tendency or non-tendency of students towards ethics in the university environment. It is recommended to use these results to develop academic ethics in higher education more efficiently.