TITLE:
Evolution Mechanisms and Resilient Governance of Academic Misconduct Discourse in Higher Education Institutions from a Complex Adaptive Systems Perspective
AUTHORS:
Xiao Qiu
KEYWORDS:
Complex Adaptive Systems, Academic Misconduct in Higher Education, Public Opinion Evolution, Resilient Governance, Multi-Case Comparison
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.14 No.10,
October
26,
2026
ABSTRACT: Academic misconduct incidents in higher education institutions, involving sensitive issues such as academic integrity and faculty-student relationships, exhibit characteristics of diverse stakeholders, complex evolution, and far-reaching societal impact, representing a classic manifestation of complex adaptive systems (CAS). Based on CAS theory, this study examines two cases: a joint complaint by 11 students against their advisor at a university in Central China, and allegations surrounding undergraduate student Liu A’s 14 SCI-indexed papers at a university in Southwest China. Employing a multi-case comparative approach, it analyzes the evolution mechanisms of academic misconduct discourse and constructs a resilience governance framework. Findings reveal that both cases underwent three stages—“initial outbreak - diffusion and development - multi-party regulation”—exhibiting CAS characteristics such as emergent actor aggregation, nonlinear interactions, and self-organizing adaptation. However, differences exist in actor composition, issue transformation pathways, and system resilience. System dynamics simulation (Vensim) revealed that varying intervention intensities significantly impact public opinion recovery time, rebound magnitude, and secondary outbreak probability. Based on these findings, a resilience governance framework—comprising “stakeholder coordination, mechanism response, and ecosystem cultivation”—is proposed. This framework provides theoretical support and practical pathways for dynamic, precision-targeted governance of academic misconduct public opinion in higher education institutions.