Undergraduate students’ views on academic dishonesty

Liina Lepp

doi:10.18844/gjhss.v3i1.1728

Abstract

Studies have shown that academic dishonesty is a complex and a growing problem worldwide. The aim of this study is to explain the personal philosophy and understandings of students about academic dishonesty. The research is based on semistructured interviews with 26 undergraduate students. The results of the study indicate that undergraduate students mostly regard academic dishonesty as cheating on exams and giving answers to their fellow students. Participants inter alia mentioned reasons regarding academic dishonesty the indifferent attitude of university teachers who, as if, prompt and encourage students to cheat and who themselves also provide a negative model for students. The reasons behind academic dishonesty are associated with the widespread use of it in comprehensive schools and the internet makes participating in academic dishonesty easier for students. To reduce academic dishonesty the following option is mentioned: students should be interested in and should try to acquaint themselves with teaching methods of the members of university teachers. Understanding how undergraduate students think about academic dishonesty and their attitudes towards it could help reduce incidences of academic dishonesty. Keywords: Academic dishonesty, plagiarism, undergraduate students, cheating, qualitative study.

Highlights

The need to prevent academic dishonesty and have an institutional response to it has received more and more attention in the past years
We present the results of the current study organized under three main sections: the nature of academic dishonesty, reasons for academic dishonesty, and opportunities for reducing academic dishonesty
To determine what students regard as academic dishonesty, several aspects were mentioned: cheating, copying other student’s work, plagiarism, consulting with fellow students

Summary

Introduction

The need to prevent academic dishonesty and have an institutional response to it has received more and more attention in the past years. Research has shown that academic dishonesty is a complicated and a growing problem around the world (Löfström & Kupila, 2013). Studies about academic dishonesty have involved various target groups, such as members of teaching staff, heads of higher education institutions, and students, ( Beasley, 2014; Yukhymenko-Lescroart, 2014). Understanding how students think about and what their attitudes towards academic dishonesty are might help to reduce incidences of academic dishonesty. The aim of this study is to gain a better insight into students’ personal philosophy and understandings on academic dishonesty

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion