The Academic Ethics of Graduate Students at Yarmouk University: From the Point of View of the Students Themselves

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Introduction
Ethics are an innately stable quality in the human soul that govern the person's conduct and behavior towards what is good and what is bad. Islam has focused on good morals and has given them importance on the world level. The Holy Quran refers to ethics in more than (300) verses, while ethics were mentioned more than 2200 times in the Prophet's Hadith (Al-Kubaisi etal, 2012: 146). As the subject of study relates to postgraduate students from their point of view, self-censorship is included as part of this study. Graduate students can through the acquired skills and knowledge improve their career in areas like the government sector, business, education, social work, the non-profit sector, international affair, etc. Historically, one of the main goals of higher education has been to influence the moral and ethical development of the members of society, which is reflected at the same time in the development of students' moral competence in addition to providing students with an education that qualifies them intellectually to contribute to the growth and prosperity of society.
However, in apparent contradiction, it has been observed through some studies that there is a rise in non-compliance with ethics and standards among university students. This matter violates the basic values of the university, which are based on an ethical system where the concept of "rights" exists within a deeper goal towards a coherent society that is loyal to this 'purpose'. Accordingly, this study was designed to ensure whether universities actually fulfill their mission of observing ethics and to explore the extent to which ethics are applied by these students as one of the "basic values" of higher education (Tenbrunsel & Messick, 2004;Gaudine & Thorne, 2001).

Study Background
Many different disciplines, institutions, and professions have standards of behavior that fit their own goals. These standards also help the organization members to coordinate their activities and to establish public confidence in discipline. For example, ethical standards orient behavior in medicine, law, engineering and business . Ethical standards also serve the research objectives and apply to persons conducting scientific research or other scientific or creative activities . Applied ethics also refers to the study of ethics in specific situations, professions, or institutions . Normative ethics describes, evaluates and studies the standards of behavior and thinking styles that people should follow, whereas descriptive ethics describes, explains and studies the standards of behavior and thought processes that people actually follow. Therefore, disciplines such as philosophy and religious studies have a normative approach to ethics (Resnik, 2015;National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, 2020;Obaini, 1997, Abdul Majeed andAl-Hayari, 1984).
It is essential to understand what graduate students think about commitment to ethics as well as their attitudes toward relevant issues. Accordingly, the general objectives of the study were to explore the understanding and the attitudes toward ethics among graduate students attending the Jordanian universities .

Previous Studies
Study of Huang, Zhou & Sheeran, (2020) aimed to measure the Chinese participants' perceptions of their moral responsibilities as educational researchers in addition to their moral awareness of human subjects. The results indicated that the participants demonstrated a basic understanding of their moral responsibilities as educational researchers and that they developed their common sense of moral awareness as human subjects. The study also indicated that there were significant differences between the gender variable, as well as between faculty members and graduate students and the effects of research experience on their perceptions of general ethical issues in educational research . Desai, Lankford & Schwartz (2020), indicated that the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic has wide-ranging implications for the field of professional ethics. Results indicated that the PhD students face unique opportunities to develop their competencies related regarding ethics through practical training courses.
Study of Saud (2019) aimed to identify the extent of the public relations practitioners' commitment in Iraqi universities to the professional ethics, what are their ethical characteristics and were the factors that lead to their deviation from ethical commitment. They enjoy a high level of awareness and commitment to professional ethics .
Al-Amoush, Al -Sarhan and Bani Khalid (2013), the study focused on human relations with student's education, learning and personal qualities. The results of the study showed that the degree of adherence as an overall average was (3.87) high. It also indicated that there were statistically significant differences at (α < 0.05) with regard to students' perceptions related to the commitment of the faculty members to the ethics of the profession, which is also attributed to the variable of the academic year and for the level of the second year or more .
Study of Tashtoush and Mazahra in (2012) aimed to uncover the degree to which the educational counselors practice the ethics of the counseling profession from their point of view. To achieve the objectives of the study, the researchers used the ethics scale for the psychological and educational counseling profession prepared by Mahasna (2006). The scale consisted of (40) items distributed in four areas: academic competencies, confidentiality, acceptance, and responsibility. The results of the study showed that the degree to which educational counselors practice the ethics of the profession of counseling was moderate .

Terminological and Procedural Definitions
The study included several terms that can be defined conceptually and procedurally as follows : • Graduate Studies: (the Graduate School) A higher education institution, usually a division of a university, that awards master's degrees, doctorates, or both (American Heritage, 2011).
• Ethics: The term has been used in general to refer to concepts, such as good, evil, and wrong, and to represent a system of ethical principles, values and standards that define what is good and bad in individual or group behavioral relationships. Individuals who act ethically do not perform the imparted business rules and standards of value without questioning or justifying. On the other hand, these individuals understand these concepts and think about them and then turn them into habits to perform the required work, and they have good and ugly descriptions, and the reward and punishment are more related to the descriptions of the inner image than to the descriptions of the visible image (Hatcher, 2004;Pieper, 1999;Ibn Manzur, 2003;Al-Harbi, 2000).
• Academic Ethics: Students' commitment not to present academic work to others as their own. This includes avoiding many activities such as cheating, seeking help from peers on examinations, copying other students' assignments, plagiarism, cooperating with others on individual assignments, and using unauthorized materials during the examination .
• Degree of commitment: The extent of graduate students' adherence and full conviction to academic ethics in the academic environment .

The Study Problem
This study contributes to studying the problem of "ethics" that has not been relatively researched until now in the Jordanian universities. The study will be applied to a large sample of graduate students in one of the largest public universities in Jordan. The results can serve to guide potential ethical action strategies to be considered in the university under study, and possibly in other universities in Jordan, to instill awareness and appreciation of ethics in the academic environment of graduate students . The importance of ethics in the educational process is based on being a party to that human and dynamic interaction between the teacher and the learner, with the objective of implanting the values of order, perseverance, sincerity in work, honesty and cooperation. These are the values to which the society ensures the individuals commitment, especially as university education is responsible for preparing intellectual, scientific, literary and professional leaders at their various levels and in various fields and institutions in addition to developing all educational institutions and upgrading them to face the emerging responsibilities and urgent problems as postgraduate students are more affected and committed at this stage to the principles and standards of ethics. (Robie and Jennings and Nelson, 1996;McAlister, 2009;McClellan, 2009;Palmer and Zajonc, 2010).
Due to the importance of postgraduate studies at Yarmouk University especially and in order to achieve the mission and vision of higher education in general, and based on what was mentioned above, the problem of study is to identify the academic ethics of graduate students at Yarmouk University from the students' point of view, and the extent of their commitment to these ethics and standards .

Importance of the Study
The importance of this study is represented through its theoretical significance being the first study at the Arab level to discuss the academic ethics among postgraduate students and from their point of view. It also highlights its importance in providing information to decision-makers in the Jordanian universities and higher education to reconsider the ethical charters, rules and ethical behavior directed at students in academic institutions with the aim of achieving the goals expected of universities, and fulfilling their mission perfectly. This approach, based on behavioral ethics, also raises the question: "What factors affect people in the ability to make and pursue ethical decisions' and "What factors cause us to behave unethically when we are present in our environment, in the ways we think and interact?" Dave & Ambujakshan, 2010). The importance of the study appears in the following: 1. The importance of the topic for postgraduate students in particular and universities in general, regarding the reality of ethical behavior for graduate students at Yarmouk University based on their role in the development and prosperity of the educational process in the academic environment and in the professional sector alike .
2. The results of the study will assist in conducting studies from other aspects related to the ethics of scientific research, ethical practices and other various aspects that will be raised in this study .

Aim of the Study and Questions
Aim of the current study is to identify the reality and degree of commitment of postgraduate students to ethical behaviors from the students' own point of view, and to identify the statistical differences of the reality of academic ethics according to the variables of gender, college and academic degree. To achieve these goals, the following questions were formulated : 1. What is the reality of the degree of commitment to academic ethics among graduate students from the students' own point of view?
2. What is the degree of commitment of graduate students to the ethics of human and community relations?
3. Are there statistically significant differences at the level of (α < 0.05) in the at Yarmouk University graduate students' responses about the degree of commitment to academic ethics from the perspective of the students themselves due to gender, college and specialization?

Limitations
The application of the study is practically limited to graduate students at Yarmouk University, in terms of gender, faculties, and specializations variables. The limits were represented by three types as follows : • Human limits: The application of the study is limited to graduate male and female students (master's and doctoral degrees) at Yarmouk University .
• Temporal limits: The first semester of the academic year 2020/2021 .
• Unavailability of literature related directly to for postgraduate students .

The Importance of Academic Ethics among Students
Students are responsible for a shared commitment to ethical principles. This is essential for educational purposes and the fairness of the academic institution. At all times, academic institutions expect students and faculty to adopt high ethical standards in the academic and social environment in all tasks. Students must act conscientiously, exchange mutual trust duly, and avoid even appearing inappropriately. Moreover, when in doubt, they should consult the teacher or other experienced people regarding whether a certain innate or acquired behavior or cooperation might be appropriate. (Altunji, 2011;Alqahtani, (2015). Students should also report suspected misconduct, and be given an active role to participate in academic disciplinary sessions if necessary. Islam has been concerned with the ethical aspect and therefore set ethical values and rules for every aspect of life. Muslims also paid attention to these Islamic moral teachings, and worked on applying them in all aspects of their lives, being one of the most important factors for the prosperity of their civilization. This interest was accompanied by a similar interest by thinkers in general and educators in particular, who compiled many letters and studies that dealt with the morals and morals of teachers and learners alike, and which derive from Islam and its comprehensive view of man, universe and life (Alfaqeeh, 2008;Albarazi, 2001;Alkobaisi & Alfalahi, 2014).
Academic misconduct occurs when a graduate student misrepresents the work of others as his or her own or otherwise acts unfairly in his favor. Examples of misconduct include cheating, plagiarism, and failure to report suspected academic misconduct. If misconduct to any extent occurs in connection with any academic work, it will be subject to disciplinary investigations. A healthy dialogue about the academic integrity and ethics will take long time until public and professional confidence are ensured to be in safe hands. As times changes and knowledge increases, you will come across new ethical requirements for yourself and your business. The cooperative teacher helps the morally trained student to accept the teaching profession, to form positive attitudes and loyalty toward it, in addition to being benevolent to students and colleagues at work, treating people with generous morals, having a smiling face, controlling anger, revealing peace and kindness to students, and loving knowledge in addition to being studious and hardworking (Al khayat, 1996;albeshri, 2011;Al-Bilawi, 1988). Aloni (2008) defines ethics as a system of ideals, values and norms that acts as a guide for the human being towards a better life.

Participants
This study aims to identify the academic ethics of graduate students at Yarmouk University. To achieve this goal, the study used the descriptive approach (survey) by distributing a questionnaire to 400 students from postgraduate programs who are in the master's and doctoral levels (through the software -Google docs) Via WhatsApp. The subject was chosen in a stratified random manner. (270) students provided their answers, forming (67.5%) of the study sample. The questionnaire consisted of 36 items divided into three domains according to the study questions. The collected data was encoded and entered into the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS).

Demographic Information
In the first part of the questionnaire, five questions (1-5) were given to students' participants in order to generate basic demographic data. The results of the analysis used frequency and percentage to describe the characteristics of the sample in the following tables:  (85) of the study sample, as shown in Table 1 above. This reflects the distribution of male and female graduate students at Yarmouk University.  (74) A student . The results also indicate that there are fewer respondents (61) in the older age groups than (41-50) years by 22.6%, and those in the age group 51 years or more were only (4.1% .) These results indicate that the community of graduate students at Yarmouk University is among the youth . The number of postgraduate students at Yarmouk University depends greatly on the number of students enrolled in each college. Participants were selected to answer the questionnaire from five colleges at Yarmouk University. Specialization categories as shown in the questionnaire consist of the following. The results of the analysis showed that there is a large variation between the numbers of respondents from each college, from 104 in the faculties of arts, education and literacy (38.5%) of the total respondents, to 12 (4.4%) in the faculties of engineering and technology. The reason for this disparity is due to the scarcity of graduate studies programs in these colleges, when compared to the literary and humanitarian colleges . The data in Table 4 refer to the result when respondents are asked to indicate the degree level at which they are currently studying. Approximately 60% (162) of respondents study the master's degree, while 40% (108) are at the doctoral level, since having a master's degree is a prerequisite for enrolling in a doctoral program in the Jordanian higher education system . The data in Table No. 5 show that the lowest percentage was (14.1%) of the sample in the fourth year (that is, of doctoral students, with 38 students), and a percentage (16.7%) of the sample in the third year, while the results of the analysis indicated the highest proportions for the first and second years, respectively (37.8 and 31.5%), in which students are admitted to the master's and doctoral levels.

Test Reliability
Cronbach's alpha test was used to verify the consistency of the questionnaire, and the values of the study variables were found to be higher than the acceptable percentage (0.60) as shown in the following The analysis data in Table No. (6) indicate that the Cronbach Alpha coefficient for the study areas is (0.78); It is the highest for the study variable, "student ethics in the academic environment," and with a slight difference, it indicated that the Cronbach coefficient was (0.766) for the second variable in relation to "the ethics of graduate students towards human and societal relations" with high total and acceptable stability coefficients for the purposes of the study (0.843). This means that the questionnaire is reliable because the alpha value of each variable is greater than 0.60.

Results and Discussion
The study aims to identify the reality of the degree of Yarmouk University graduate students' commitment to academic ethics from the viewpoint of the students themselves. To measure that, the data-collection questionnaire was formed of 31 paragraphs, and the study used the five-point Likert scale, from strongly agree (1) to strongly disagree (5).
Following are the results of the analysis presented according to the sequence of the study questions .

Academic Ethics
Question 1:What is the reality of the degree of commitment to academic ethics among graduate students from the students' own point of view?
To answer this question, the mean and the standard deviation were calculated for each of the sub-questions related to the above study question, and the following scale was adopted to determine the level of acceptance for each variable, as in the following table :  Table No. (8) below shows that the large average of the variable reflects an average level of acceptance towards the variable above. Also, the Q "Graduate students at the university subjectively evaluate the scientific subjects they study" has the highest acceptance level, while Q10 "Postgraduate students at the university are bound to specified work hours in advance" has the lowest level of acceptance . The data analysis referred to in table no. (8) show that the grand mean of the variable reflects medium level of acceptance toward the above variable. It was also found that Q8 (Postgraduate students at university objectively evaluate the scientific material they are studying) has the highest acceptance level, whereas, Q10 (Postgraduate students at the university are bound by the pre-set office hours) has the lowest acceptance level.

Human Ethics
Question 2: What is the degree of commitment of graduate students to the ethics of human and community relations?
To answer this question, the arithmetic mean and standard deviation were calculated for each of the sub-questions related to the above study question as shown in the following Table No. 9. The table above shows that the grand mean of the variable reflects a medium level of acceptance toward the above variable. It was also found that Q35 (The graduate student at the university is keen to apply and implement the vision and mission of the university) has the highest acceptance level, whereas, Q30 (Postgraduate students at the university are committed to the etiquette of speech) and discussion in and outside the academic environment) has the lowest acceptance level.

Significant Differences
Question 3: Are there statistically significant differences at the level of (a 0.05) in the responses of graduate students at the University of Jordan regarding the degree of commitment to academic ethics from the viewpoint of the students themselves due to the variable of gender, faculty, and level of education? ANCOVA Test was used to answer the above question, it was found that: Gender: F value is significant at 0.05 level, that means there are statistically significant differences at the level of significance (α 0.05) in the responses of graduate students at the University of Jordan regarding the degree of commitment to academic ethics from the viewpoint of the students themselves due to gender. And these differences tend to increase in the (males) sample more than (females) sample, as shown in the following table: Faculty: F value is not significant at (0.05) level, that means there are no statistically significant differences at the level of significance (α 0.05) in the responses of graduate students at the University of Jordan regarding the degree of commitment to academic ethics from the viewpoint of the students themselves due to Faculty.
Level of education: F value is significant at (0.05 level, that means there are statistically significant differences at the level of significance (α 0.05) in the responses of graduate students at the University of Jordan regarding the degree of commitment to academic ethics from the viewpoint of the students themselves due to Level of education. And these differences tend to increase in the (MASTER) sample more than (PHD) sample, as shown in the following table:

Discussion
In general, graduate students confirm that they have a degree of commitment to academic ethics from their point of view, although the score was on a median level (3.50).
As for the second question, the results in Table (9) regarding the human and societal relations, indicated five paragraphs (27-31) referred to the low degree and four paragraphs of (25, 33, 34 and 36) indicated an average level of acceptance while the paragraphs (35, 26, 32) indicated a high level of acceptance. Based on these results, the overall arithmetic mean was (2.85).
The low level is attributed to universities' lack of interest in updating and clarifying the ethical code for students since they have joined university, in addition to the failure to make students at the bachelor's stage work as groups, due to the focus of higher education policy on examinations rather than projects in the curricula taught in the Jordanian universities. The results can also explain the average acceptance results that correspond to low-level paragraphs in terms of meaning. Usually there is some kind of jealousy among students in the superiority of one student over another. This makes the student mention the flaws of his colleagues in front of others, which is reflected in the lack of commitment and control of moral behavior with the general community. As for the paragraphs with high acceptance, the fact that the student's presence in the academic environment means supporting the university's vision and mission in general. The ethical charter is currently receiving attention with regard to scientific research and its ethics, due to the application of new regulations by the Jordanian universities in terms of controlling plagiarism and copyright. Because of the social customs and traditions, these students maintain their moral behavior when interacting with the opposite gender . That is why the arithmetic mean for this field was somewhat an average of (2.85) Accordingly, this study differed in its results from other studies, the most of which were conducted on the ethics of faculty members in the academic environment including the study of Al-Hourani and Tanash (2007) which indicated the staff's commitment to professional and academic ethics in their dealings with students and colleagues. The study also disagreed with Ismail (2000) that indicated a faculty member's commitment to educational ethics, human and societal relations as a whole. This study was in agreement both Schake & Dumler (2004) and Kuther (2003) that noted a problem with the faculty members regarding the humanitarian and community relations and lack of commitment to mutual respect.
As for the faculty variable, the results indicated that there were no statistically significant differences at the level of significance (α 0.05) in "the degree of graduate students' commitment in academic ethics from the students' point of view" according to the difference of the faculty variable, where the value (F) of the level of statistical significance. However, it was found that there are statistically significant differences in favor of postgraduate students in humanitarian colleges with a mean of (4.02), compared to the average of technological and scientific colleges, which amounted to (3.70). The reason for this result is that the master's and doctoral programs at Yarmouk University are more available to humanitarian colleges. These results disagreed with the results of Al-Qurashi (2015) and Al-Kharabsheh and Al-Rababaa (2007) that showed statistically significant differences in favor of colleges and scientific departments in terms of adherence to the academic ethics .
Finally, the results indicate the existence of statistically significant differences at the level of significance (α < 0.05) in "the degree of commitment of graduate students in academic ethics from the students' point of view" according to the difference of the program or academic degree variable, in favor of the master's students with an arithmetic mean of (3.61) on the expense of doctoral students with an arithmetic average of (3.32). This is because the master's programs are taught in all the scientific and human colleges, while the doctoral program is taught only in the faculties of education, arts and Sharia.

Recommendations
The study has the following recommendations based on the findings: 1. Increasing interest in the degree of ethical commitment among graduate students in the Jordanian universities. 2. Guiding students through workshops and training courses on academic ethical commitment and increasing the focus on moral commitment to human and social relations, so that it becomes a hereditary culture for them . 3. Conducting updates and orientation towards sustainability and growth in relation to the charter and the codes of academic and human ethical behavior by Jordanian universities towards students in general and for graduate studies in particular . 4. Conducting more future studies on academic ethics for university students as this is the first study in this respect at the Arab level while foreign studies also focused on the ethics of scientific research .