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Academic misconduct among undergraduates across Aotearoa: Insights and implications for policy and practice
(Springer, 2024-03-26) Stephens, Jason M.; Absolum, Kate; Adam, Lee A.; Blickem, Chelsea J.; Gilliver-Brown, Katherine E.; Hart, Deirdre E.; Kelly, John; Olsen, Wendy; Ulrich, Neil
As elsewhere in the world, academic misconduct is a serious problem in Aotearoa. Yet, beyond the occasional newspaper headline, we know relatively little about the extent of the problem here or the factors associated with it. Consequently, our educational leaders and practitioners are left under-informed as they seek to address the problem and promote academic integrity. To help provide the knowledge and insights needed to craft good policy and best practice, the Research on Academic Integrity in New Zealand (RAINZ) Project—a research collaboration involving eight tertiary institutions—was founded in 2021. In the second semester of 2022, the RAINZ Project launched the first-ever nationwide survey of undergraduate students’ perceptions, attitudes, and behaviours related to academic integrity. Results from this survey, which was completed by undergraduates (N = 4493), indicate that most students (approximately two-thirds) reported engaging in at least one form of academic misconduct in the past year. As hypothesised, students’ perceptions (of the institutional climate and peer norms) and moral attitudes (related to cheating) were significantly associated with their engagement in academic misconduct. Details of these results as well as their implications for policy and practice are discussed.
A multi-objective decision-support framework for early-stage cost–carbon–process-hour screening of prefabricated cold-formed steel residential framing in New Zealand
(The University of Waikato, 2026) Ramani, Kevin; Lim, James Boon Piang
Early-stage configuration decisions in prefabricated cold-formed steel (CFS) residential framing can influence process cost, A1–A5 embodied carbon, and construction process-hours before detailed structural verification, procurement, and construction planning are complete. In the New Zealand residential construction context, these decisions are important because panel rationalisation, truss rationalisation, opening/detailing complexity, and prefabrication level affect how work is distributed across factory production, transport, logistics, and site installation. As a result, single-objective assessment is insufficient for comparing alternative framing configurations. This thesis develops a multi-objective decision-support framework for early-stage cost–carbon–process-hour screening of prefabricated CFS residential framing in New Zealand. A project-derived residential framing package is represented using the decision vector 𝐱=[𝑅𝑝,𝑅𝑡,𝑂𝐶,𝑃𝑓], where 𝑅𝑝 and 𝑅𝑡 represent panel and truss rationalisation intensity, 𝑂𝐶 represents opening/detailing complexity, and 𝑃𝑓 represents prefabrication level. Three objectives are minimised simultaneously: CFS framing process cost, A1–A5 embodied carbon, and CFS framing process-hours. A model-calculated S2 reference configuration is used for normalisation, comparison, and robustness assessment. An LHS-initialised NSGA-II optimisation procedure was used to generate nondominated cost–carbon–process-hour alternatives within the fixed case-study boundary. The reported optimisation run produced 8,302 feasible nondominated configurations without hard constraint violations, of which 2,695 achieved simultaneous reductions in predicted process cost, embodied carbon, and process-hours relative to S2. The remaining nondominated configurations are interpreted as trade-off alternatives rather than universal improvements over the reference case. Model credibility was assessed through S2 reasonableness checking, coefficient-audit traceability, convergence diagnostics, sensitivity analysis, constraint testing, multi-seed stability checking, and Monte Carlo robustness assessment. The results indicate that improved performance is achieved through coordinated rationalisation, detailing simplification, and prefabrication control rather than by maximising any single variable independently. The contribution of this thesis is an applied-methodological decision-support workflow for screening prefabricated CFS residential framing configurations before detailed structural design, contractor pricing, life-cycle assessment, and construction scheduling.
Testing the correspondence between self-reported and actual culturally valued behaviours in Māori students across Māori and non-Māori environments
(The University of Waikato, 2026) Shadrock, Mariah-Paige; Fox, Ririwai
Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) views culture as a network of interrelated behaviours maintained by social reinforcement within a shared verbal community (Baer et al., 2005; Bishop et al., 2009; Skinner, 1957). Within this framework, culturally valued behaviours (CVBs) for Māori—such as helping and contributing to the collective—are shaped and sustained through social consequences that reflect shared cultural practices (Baum, 2005; Bishop et al., 2009; Skinner, 1957). Despite their importance, these behaviours are rarely observed directly; researchers often rely on self-report measures, which represent a form of verbal behaviour available only to the speaker (Nisbett & Wilson, 1977; Skinner, 1957). Studies indicate that self-reported behaviours and observable actions often correlate only modestly (Baumeister et al., 2007; Dang et al., 2020), suggesting that verbal endorsements of values or intentions may not reliably predict actual behaviour. The Māori Cultural Embeddedness Scale (MaCES; Durie, 2001; Fox et al., 2023; Mead, 2003) was developed to assess engagement with Māori cultural values and practices. However, it remains unclear whether Māori individuals’ self-reported behaviours, as measured by the MaCES, reflect their actual behaviour (Durie, 2001; Fox et al., 2023; Mead, 2003). From an ABA perspective, correspondence between reported and observed behaviours must be demonstrated empirically rather than assumed (Cooper et al., 2020; Michael, 1982; Skinner, 1953). Guided by both ABA and Kaupapa Māori principles (Bishop, 1996; Bishop & Berryman, 2006, 2009; Smith, 1999), the present study addressed this gap by examining the alignment between Māori students’ self-reported and directly observed helping behaviour in Māori and non-Māori environments. Self-reported CVB was assessed using the Culturally Valued Behaviour Scale (CVB), a Māori cultural values and practices survey. One item (Q12) was drawn from the MaCES and was explicitly related to helping and used to analyse culturally valued helping behaviour (Durie, 2001; Fox et al., 2023). Twenty-three Māori students participated and were randomly assigned to either Te Kohinga Mārama Marae or a standard university psychology laboratory. Participants set up the room, completed the CVB (during which the observer intentionally dropped papers), and then packed up, while helping behaviours were recorded. Spearman’s rho assessed the correspondence between self-reported and observed helping within each context (Field, 2018). An independent t-test examined differences by environment and sex, while ANOVA assessed differences across age groups (Cohen, 1992). Results showed no significant correspondence between self-reported helping (Q12) and observed helping in either setting. Helping frequency remained consistently high across both environments, with no significant differences by environment, sex, or age. The CVB demonstrated acceptable internal consistency (α = .743), although item-level analyses suggested that behaviours clustered rather than showing uniform endorsement (Fox et al., 2023). Qualitative responses indicated that participants’ helping was motivated by intrinsic prosocial values rather than direct demands or perceived obligation (Baum, 2005; Biglan & Glenn, 2013). Overall, the findings suggest limited “say-do” correspondence for culturally valued behaviour in this sample (Baer et al., 1968; Nisbett & Wilson, 1977). Verbal endorsements of helping appeared to be governed by different contingencies than overt behaviour. Contrary to expectations, the Māori environment did not increase helping frequency or strengthen correspondence relative to the non-Māori setting. These results contribute to Māori-centred behavioural research by highlighting the complexity of measuring culturally valued behaviours and emphasizing the value of multimethod approaches that combine Kaupapa Māori perspectives with direct behavioural observation (Bishop et al., 2009; Smith, 1999). Future research should explore additional culturally grounded behaviours, expand opportunities for helping, examine how environmental contingencies within Māori settings may more strongly evoke or differentiate culturally valued actions, and investigate the difference between manded versus naturalistic behaviours to better understand how culturally valued actions are expressed across contexts (Cooper et al., 2020; Michael, 1993).
Māori perspectives on trust and automated decision-making
(Te Kotahi Research Institute, 2020) West, Kiri; Wilson, Daniel; Thompson, Ari; Hudson, Maui
The following report is a presentation of findings from a literature review and expert wānanga looking at Māori perspectives on trust and automated decision making. The research contributes to the Digital Council’s Work Programme for 2020 which included a focus to technological issues facing New Zealand relating to trust. This project explores understanding the trust Māori have in automated decision making technologies and how this influences perceptions of the harm and benefit of technology.
Contested terrain: Academics’ perceptions of the quality assurance processes, policies and practices shaping academic work within the context of Oman
(The University of Waikato, 2026) Al Aufi, Maryam; Morrison, Michele; Klinger, Don
Quality assurance (QA) continues to gain increasing global attention as higher education systems expand and diversify in response to massification, internationalisation and demands for accountability. Despite being embedded in many national and institutional frameworks for decades, QA remains a growing concern, particularly regarding its conceptualisation, implementation, and impacts on academic work. Academic staff, as key stakeholders in delivering education, are at the forefront of experiencing and interpreting QA processes, policies and practices. This study examines academics’ perceptions of how QA processes, policies, and practices shape academic work in higher education in Oman. The context of this study is the University of Technology and Applied Sciences (UTAS) with a focus on teaching aspects, performance appraisal, and professional development. A qualitative case study methodology was employed across three academic colleges in four UTAS branches. The study used semi-structured interviews with 18 academic staff members, conducted via Zoom, as the primary data collection method. It is supplemented by document research to provide contextual understanding and enrich the data. Thematic analysis was applied to identify themes and meanings within participants’ experiences. NVivo software was used to manage and organise the qualitative data, enabling systematic coding and development of themes. Reflexivity was maintained throughout the research to account for my positionality and interpretation. The analysis presents two interconnected dimensions of QA: implementation and impact. Findings reveal that participants perceived the implementation of the QA system as dominated by compliance-oriented mechanisms, superficial engagement and bureaucratic documentation that marginalises genuine academic voice. Participants reported significant changes in their academic work, namely curriculum, pedagogical approaches and assessment practices. However, observable changes appeared to be driven more by external factors, such as technological developments and COVID-19 disruptions, than QA mechanisms themselves. Participants also reported intensified teaching standardisation pressures, the surveillant performance appraisal system and mandatory professional development requirements. The findings reveal interwoven tensions and persistent questions that echo global debates on QA in higher education. Key concerns include the continued lack of a conceptual consensus on the definition and purpose of QA, the prioritisation of compliance over academic improvement, and bureaucratic processes that constrain rather than enable autonomy and academic freedom. QA mechanisms at UTAS functioned primarily to ensure conformity and institutional discipline. This study makes several important research contributions. It contributes to the limited research on QA in the context of Oman by exploring how the QA system shapes academic work. This contribution extends to the broader Gulf and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) contexts, where similar centralised governance and top-down QA policy implementation exist yet remain under-researched. This creates opportunities for comparative research and establishes a baseline for longitudinal investigation tracking QA development in the region. This study also contributes to global debates on QA in higher education by both echoing widespread tensions and advancing understanding of how these tensions demonstrate with a centralised governance context. The study offers recommendations to enhance QA implementation at both policy and institutional levels. It advocates operational principles, including inclusivity in policy development, responsiveness to disciplinary diversity, transparency in expectations and processes, and trust-based rather than surveillance-oriented approaches. Underpinning these principles is the need for flexibility, autonomy and academic freedom in teaching and professional development, allowing academics to innovate pedagogically, make context-appropriate decisions and engage in meaningful professional growth rather than conforming to QA requirements and surveillance-based performance management.