Prevalence, Types and Reasons for Academic Dishonesty among College Students

Abstract

This study examines the prevalence, types, and reasons of academic dishonesty among a sample of 106 college students. A mixed methodology was used in order to obtain the required data. An experimental observation was done to know the prevalence of cheating behavior in experimental settings. A standardized self-report instrument was used to study the prevalence of types of academic dishonesty behaviors that the students are engaged in and focus group discussions were carried out to explore the reasons for academic dishonesty behavior from the student perspective. Results: The prevalence of cheating behavior of students in the experiment is 61.6 % and 75% from faculty and student perspective respectively. The self-reporting survey showed 93.4% of students engaging in academic dishonesty. Findings suggest that taking help from external sources, plagiarism, lying, and cheating in the examination were admitted as the most prominent behaviors with 76.4%, 72.6%, 50.9%, and 55.7% involvement respectively. Parental expectations, conformity, taking up courses due to external influence like parental choice or societal pressure, high competition in getting grades, reservations in education are found as the most vital reasons for students involving in academic dishonesty.

Keywords

• academic dishonesty; cheating behavior; college students; factors influencing; reasons