Members of the national Ethics Committee and of ethical bodies in public and private universities of Montenegro visited Paris for an advanced training in ethics in higher education. The visit took place on 12-14 September 2022 and included a delegation of 10 individuals.

IIEP-UNESCO (International Institute for Educational Planning) experts ran the training sessions. A wide range of academic integrity themes were addressed such as new trends in higher education (including COVID-19 crisis), translating ethical charters into concrete tools, linking integrity and quality assurance: lessons from international experience, building a culture of integrity: how to advocate for ethics within the university community, and many others.

The visit also gave participants the opportunity to discuss how to design reporting and whistleblowing mechanisms and how to react in the event of breaches of the ethics charter/codes of conduct. The French experience in this regard was presented by Transparency International, France.

The head of the Office for Scientific Integrity at the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research talked about the legal framework and practice for promoting and enforcing scientific integrity in research establishments in France.

The training was rewarding for participants given that new system of safeguarding academic integrity in Montenegro has recently been put in place by the law on academic integrity. Guests from Montenegro were very motivated in exchanging experiences, establishing cross-border co-operation, learning about examples of good practice, and addressing potential challenges with French counterparts.

The study visit was organised within the framework of the joint European Union/Council of Europe action “Quality education for all”, which is a part of the programme “Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Turkey 2019-2022”.