A comparative study of academic dishonesty among university students in Mainland China and Taiwan

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare the academic dishonesty (AD) experience of students from Mainland China and Taiwan. Specifically, we investigated students’ current self-reported personal AD, their perception of peers’ AD, the climate of academic integrity and their awareness of AD’s seriousness. Furthermore, we sought to explore the relationship between AD behavior and several variables. In total, 605 students from Mainland China (n = 368) and Taiwan (n = 237) were recruited to participate in the study. All the participants perceived that they were less involved in AD than their peers, and students from both areas ranked the gravity of AD offenses similarly. However, Chinese students generally reported higher rates of improper credit attribution, fraudulence, and falsification than their Taiwanese counterparts. Finally, two regression models revealed gender, perception of peer AD, and awareness of AD’s seriousness were significant variables in terms of predicting self-reported personal AD, and there existed interactions between the students’ perception of peer AD and gender. Witnessing peers’ misconduct influenced males more than females in terms of engaging in AD for both Mainland Chinese and Taiwanese students.