A Study on the Prevalence and Correlates of Academic Dishonesty in Four Undergraduate Degree Programs

With college students from four different disciplines representing the humanities as well as the natural, mathematical, and social sciences as respondents, this study determined the degree of prevalence and correlates of academic dishonesty among students. A survey questionnaire about the respondents’ personal characteristics and their frequency of engagement in academic dishonesty during one whole academic year (two semesters) was used as the research instrument. A Wilcoxon Signed-Ranks test was used to determine which between cheating on examinations, quizzes and/or exercises and cheating on papers and/or projects was committed more often. Spearman’s Rank Correlation tests were conducted to determine significant correlations between the students’ characteristics and academic dishonesty. The study found that within an academic year, nine out of ten students have engaged in at least one act of academic dishonesty. Furthermore, students engaged in more types of academic cheating on papers/projects than on exams/quizzes/exercises. The most prevalent form of academic dishonesty was connivance through the sharing between students of answers and questions to an exam/quiz/exercise that a student has taken before and the others are just about to take. Cheating on papers/projects was committed more often than on exams/quizzes/exercises for all degree programs except for mathematical science students. Only two variables, (1) perception of one’s classmates’ and peers’ frequency of academic cheating and (2) frequency of academic cheating during high school, have moderately strong positive correlations with academic dishonesty. The attitude that academic cheating is never justified, on the other hand, was found to have a moderately strong negative correlation with academic dishonesty

Keywords: Academic Dishonesty, Cheating, Academe, Academic Integrity, Education