Prof. Lakić at the Annual Conference of the European Network for Academic Integrity

Vice-Dean for Scientific Research and International Cooperation of the Faculty of Philosophy Prof. Siniša Lakić, PhD, participated in the annual conference of the European Network for Academic Integrity (ENAI), which was held from 12 to 14 July 2023.

The European Network for Academic Integrity is the largest European association promoting academic and research integrity among universities. The network gathers universities from 24 European countries and several EU associated countries (Canada, India, UAE) and holds a scientific and professional conference every year. The University of Banja Luka became a member of ENAI in 2022, and this is the first time that it had its representative who took part in the work of the assembly, and had the opportunity to introduce many colleagues to the work of the University.

The topics presented at the conference held in the British Derby included common problems faced by all educational systems - plagiarism, fabrication of diplomas, falsification of data, cheating on exams, circumvention of research norms, but the largest number of topics was devoted to the role of artificial intelligence in university education. Namely, a significant number of universities have already published institutional rules on the use of content generators based on artificial intelligence. A consensus was reached that some of them were too restrictive (i.e., a complete ban on use) and just as wrong as was ignoring the new phenomenon and its enormous effect on education.

ENAI already published the recommendations which advocate transparency in the use of AI tools. Moreover, the conclusion reached at the conference is that it would be good to adopt rules at the university level that allow flexibility at the level of individual subjects. In addition, all teachers and students should be instructed on how to use such tools in an ethical manner. This refers to knowing the most important tools, being aware of potentially inaccurate or plagiarized content, properly referencing tools, but also why it is important to emphasize the meaning of independent work in curricula, when required.

Prof. Lakić participated in the conference through the WBC-RRI.NET Horizon 2020 Project which is dedicated to responsible research and innovation in the area of the Western Balkans and the support of the Council of Europe Platform on Ethics, Transparency and Integrity in Education (ETINED).