Benchmarking Professional Ethics Documents at Universities; Providing the Pattern and Solutions

This research aims to benchmark (national and international) experiences in the field of professional ethics documents at universities and provides solutions to improve it. The study population consisted of 100 top universities in the world (based on the Shanghai ranking) and 539 universities in Iran. Of these, 59 universities in Iran and 100 universities abroad have professional ethics documents. Therefore, the sampling method of this study is complete. This research is qualitative and has benefited from the methods of documentary, library studies, benchmarking and best practice. The research findings show that at present, at universities of Iran and even the worldchr('39')s top universities, more attention is paid to ethical commitment. The code of ethics has been neglected. Indeed, universities that have professional ethics documents do not have integrity in their content. On the other hand, the findings indicate that the comprehensive ethics document at universities has created a unified approach to implementing ethics in universities, which leads to better and more effective management and interaction and, in general, a better implementation of professional ethics at the university. Therefore, it is necessary that the chief and manager of the university pay more attention to the development of a comprehensive ethics document for universities. Finally, based on the study of theoretical foundations, the history of research and benchmarking and best practice has been prepared some ways to develop and improve the professional ethics documents at universities.