An Oxford Brookes University professor has received an award for her approach to academic integrity.

Professor Mary Davis has been given a National Teaching Fellowship, which celebrates individuals who have made an outstanding impact on student outcomes and teaching in higher education.

Joining the university in 2002 as an associate lecturer, she has progressed to become the academic integrity lead and professor in education and student experience.

She said: "Getting this award is incredibly exciting and surreal. I'm deeply honoured and delighted.

"I have been a National Teaching Fellowship reviewer for the last two or three years and I have seen how outstanding the applications are for the award, so to achieve it is amazing to me.

“All my career over 22 years at Brookes has been developing my expertise in academic integrity.

"I use my knowledge of how students develop academic integrity skills in everything I do.

“So many universities focus on telling students what not to do, warnings and punishments.

"Getting a more positive approach to teaching academic integrity is something I have really worked on at Brookes. They [students] need to have opportunities to learn, understand and practise.”

Professor Davis is an expert in the formative use of Turnitin, a text-matching tool used to check student work, and has developed courses for students to help them understand how to use source material correctly.

She supports students in understanding good practice, as well as identifying possible plagiarism in their work to help them improve their academic writing, and has also created a course to guide ethical decision-making in using artificial intelligence at Oxford Brookes.

Professor Tim Vorley, pro vice-chancellor and dean of Oxford Brookes Business School, said: "Academic integrity is vital if students are to do the best they possibly can.

"Mary’s hard work and commitment really helps them to do this and I am genuinely delighted to see her work and contribution recognised by the National Teaching Fellowship."

Professor Davis is a member of the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education UK Advisory Group on Academic Integrity, the International Centre for Academic Integrity's board of directors and co-chair of the International Day of Action for Academic Integrity.

She worked on rebranding the International Day of Action against Contract Cheating to the International Day of Action for Academic Integrity.

This was in an effort to highlight a positive approach to promoting good practices, rather than a fight against cheating.

As co-chair of this annual event, she engages hundreds of students and staff globally in activities that champion academic integrity.