DEVELOPING AN ETHICAL FRAMEWORK FOR GRADUATES VIA THE OATH PROJECT

The OATH project flows from the United Nations’ Global Compact (Principles for Responsible Management Education Principle 2) and is based around the development of an effective learning culture through emergent reflective skills. One which encourages the students to take an active learning approach (Ramsden, 2003; Biggs, 2003; Biggs and Tang, 2007). The key concept of the OATH project is that the student group explore issues linked to business and corporate responsibility in detail and make an ethical pledge about their future professional behaviours.

This presentation will review the experience of both Staff and students in facilitating students to go beyond digesting knowledge and to garner their resources to have a long-term positive impact in society (PRME Principle 1). Many aspects of the ethics of corporate social responsibility are examined on Nottingham Trent University's BA International Business degree course. Teaching strategies and the educational framework on the course are utilised to enable the students to recognise that their future actions can be part of both problems and solutions (PRME Principle 3). Those students that are concerned with this dilemma are provided with an opportunity to examine the issues in greater depth and explore their collective and individual problem resolution to these issues via the OATH project.

A focus group was conducted with students that have engaged with the OATH project reviewing how their perceptions changed and what were the triggers. The results from the research show that reflective learning can be transformational and provide a platform to change and inform the learner’s attitudes, values and future actions. A model has been developed based on these findings and discussion will consider the transferability of these ideas into other disciplinary areas. An initial pilot project is currently underway whereby students on NTU's MA in International Development are collaborating on a cross-disciplinary OATH project initiative. External international benchmarking has been developed which will allow an evaluation of multi and cross-disciplinary applications of this model.

The purpose of this presentation will be to both share good practice on promoting ethical career choices and also to explore potential collaborative projects with colleagues attending INTED 2016 from other institutions in order to develop a network of OATH projects that are adopted and adapted according to local circumstances and job markets.