Academic Misconduct Among Medical Students; A Multiple College Study

Abstract

Objective: To determine the frequency of academic misconduct among students of medical colleges affiliated with University of Health Sciences in Punjab. Study Design: Cross-sectional analytical study. Place and Duration of Study: Different Public and Private sector medical colleges in Punjab affiliated with University of Health Sciences, from Jan 2018 to Dec 2018. Methodology: Multistage stratified random sampling technique was used to select the study subjects. Information was collected on a self-administered questionnaire containing the common trends of academic misconducts. Data was entered and analyzed through SPSS version 22. Results: Total 2000 students were enrolled in the study with equal participation from public and private sector. Mean age of the respondents was 21.82±1.82 years. Overall frequency of academic misconduct was high i.e., 1928(96.4%). The most frequent academic misconduct was asking friend to mark the proxy (84.45%) and the least frequent reported misconduct was using cell phone for exchange of answers (14.25%). The difference of academic misconduct among students of public andprivate sector medical college students was significant (p-<0.001). The academic misconduct was also significantly different(p=0.005) among students from rural and urban residential backgrounds. Conclusion: Academic misconduct was found a serious problem among medical students studying in public and private sector medical colleges of Punjab, Pakistan.Key words: Academic misconduct, Medical col