Research Integrity in Using Digital Data

Research Integrity in Using Digital Data
 

Professor Lesley Gourlay

Department of Culture, Communication and Media
University of College London

Institute of Education

April 27, 2026 (Monday)

14:30 – 15:45
Room 408-410, Meng Wah Complex, HKU

Chair: Professor Liz Jackson

Abstract:
Educational research increasingly relies on the use of online and/or digital data. Such research is informing changes to universities and higher education systems and the work and experiences of academics and students, including how scholars communicate, learn, and create knowledge. Additionally, digital data is increasingly used for a variety of informal and formal surveillance activities on campuses as well as in quality research assurance activities. However, there are a series of concerns which could be raised in the current climate of digital surveillance in terms of the ethical boundaries between institutions ‘accountability and oversight’, in tension with fundamental principles of academic freedom, seclusion and the very nature of knowledge / epistemic practices. This seminar will help researchers, teachers, and administrators in the Faculty better understand dilemmas relates to research integrity in using digital data for institutional research purposes. It considers research integrity principles and their application in institutional research and offers advice for educational researchers regarding how to engage in research with integrity to enhance higher education.

About the Speaker:
Lesley Gourlay is a Professor of Education in the Department of Culture, Communication and Media, University College London Institute of Education, UK. Her research focuses on datafication, posthumanism, phenomenology in digital higher education. She was a recipient of a Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship 2021-2025 focused on ‘The Datafied University: Documentation and Performativity in in Digitised Education’. Her recent publications have focused on questions relating to surveillance and audit cultures in higher education; she is currently working on a monograph for Bloomsbury Academic on generative AI and authorship. https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/48714-lesley-gourlay

~ All are welcome ~