Academic Dishonesty: An Alarming Problem in Higher Education

Abstract

Academic dishonesty is distressingly growing amongst students for better grades. With the technological advancement an access to digital technologies has become user friendly that is why students are opting academic dishonesty over academic integrity. Adolescents are at a time in their life where they are mostly influenced by their peers by what they do. If peers are choosing academic dishonesty, then they are more likely to do the same (McCabe, 1999).The pervasive competition for better grades and good marks becomes the main cause for individual’s predispositions to cheat. The present study was undertaken to examine and compare the self report attitude and behaviour towards academic dishonesty of undergraduate male and female students and to see whether peer pressure plays a driving force or not. A two group design was adopted for the present study. A sample of 200 undergraduate students (100 male and 100 female) in the age range of 18-25 years was administered Attitude Toward Academic Dishonesty (Davis et al 1992), Academic Dishonesty Scale (McCabe & Trevino, 1997) and Peer Pressure Scale (Singh & Saini, 2010).The t-test was employed. The results indicated that male students were found to be high on academic dishonesty as well as on peer pressure as compared to their counterparts. The present study implicates that effective efforts should be aimed at enhancing students’ testtaking, writing, and studying and time-management skills.