Good article in BusinessWeek on Where do Business Majors Weigh in on Honesty! The study which surveyed over 50,000 students from 69 schools showed that 26% of business students admitted to serious cheating on exams, and 54% admitted to cheating on assignments (plagiarism or poaching a friends homework). The numbers are similar accross disciplines, but highest for dishonesty are Journalism 1st and Business 2nd.
The problem is actually much worse, remember these are the numbers that “admit” to cheating. Three years ago, there was a guest speaker at UVSC who shared the statistics of the nations top 23 schools in academic honesty among all disciplines. The survey was a bit different, and included frequency of when they last cheated on an exam. Out of that survey over 50% of the respondents admitted to cheating on an exam in the last six months. The study also noted that when students (student governments) decide the penalties associated with cheating they are often harder on thier peers than instructors or staff (probably because there are many of us who “work” for our grades and don’t want others cheating their way up).
I think most universities are missing the boat when it comes to ethics, honesty, and cheating. How many of those who cheated in college become college professors? When I was in college, we had a visiting lecturer from a Southern California University who admitted to cheating when he was a student in college, and said he would do it again if he had too. He justified it based on the “system” that was in place at the time. Ironically our class was “business ethics.” I think our society has a long way to go when it comes to honesty, and it starts with education!
