Perception, prevalence and prevention of academic dishonesty: evidence from a Middle East country

Purpose

The aim of this paper is to explore the behavior pattern, perceptions, and motivations of students towards academic misconduct in a Business School with a view to mitigating its occurrence.

Design/methodology/approach

The survey was conducted among a batch of undergraduate students who responded to various dimensions of plagiarism through a structured questionnaire. Responses were measured on a Likert scale. Some non-parametric tests were done for statistical analysis.

Findings

From the perception of the prevalence of plagiarism committed by others, the authors found that the majority tend to believe that it happens in spite of the existence of preventive policies. Based on the findings, the authors conclude that the students who are more prone to cheating/plagiarism are male, with low grade point average, and are not on scholarship. Parental disapproval is found to be one of the dominant deterrent factors that have the potential to restrain unethical behavior.

Practical implications

The findings demonstrate that the managers of graduate programs should include parental roles in the deterrent mechanism to improve the quality of education.

Originality/value

Very little evidence exists about the perception of academic dishonesty among the students of a multicultural academic institution located in a middle-east country. There are not many studies that analyze the effectiveness of deterrents from a student’s perspective. In this paper, the authors have attempted to assess the value of various deterrents and their effectiveness as perceived by the students.