Student and faculty perceptions of, and experiences with, academic dishonesty at a medium-sized Canadian university

There is a paucity of research into the prevalence of academic dishonesty within Canada compared to other countries. Recently, there has been a call for a better understanding of the particular characteristics of educational integrity in Canada so that Canada can more meaningfully contribute to current discussions surrounding academic integrity. Here, we present findings from student (N = 1142) and faculty (N = 130) surveys conducted within a medium-sized (~ 8700 students) Canadian university. These surveys probed perceptions towards, and experiences with, academic dishonesty, in which we aimed to understand how students and faculty regarded academically dishonest practices during their postsecondary careers. We also aimed to understand how often students engaged in, and faculty had witnessed, academic dishonesty, whether or not witnessing incidents of academic dishonesty corresponded with gender, year of experience, highest level of educational attainment, discipline, or their personal perceptions towards the importance of academic honesty, and whether students had been adequately taught what constitutes academic dishonesty. We found that an overwhelming majority of students viewed academic honesty as important, and that most students reported not engaging in academic dishonesty themselves despite 45.8% reporting that they had witnessed others engage in academic dishonesty. We also found that students were more likely to witness cheating as their postsecondary experience increased, that witnessing varied across disciplines and educational attainment, and that witnessing varied with student perceptions. However, we found no such patterns in faculty responses, but found that faculty are split on whether or not they believe incidents of academic honesty are increasing.

Teaching Academic Honesty and Ethical Standards

The considerations presented in this paper refer to the idea of developing academic honesty and introducing ethical standards in research among high school students of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme. The mission of the International Baccalaureate Organization is to form a better world through education. One of the ways to achieve this is to create international educational programmes that include the development of a respectful, principled and caring attitude among their students. Teaching about academic honesty and ethical standards in research as well as introducing these principles in everyday school life is the best way to put these rules into practice. In the following paper, the regulations of the International Baccalaureate on academic honesty in general and ethical guidance for psychology in particular will be presented, followed by examples of good practice from one of the IB schools, the Międzynarodowe Liceum Paderewski in Lublin, Poland.

Introduction of Academic Honesty as a Necessary Prerequisite and an Important Component of Quality Education for Future Economists

The article deals with: academic honesty as an important component of higher education as a social institution; legislative changes aimed at promoting academic integrity in higher education institutions of Ukraine; the most successful European practices in combating and preventing academic misconduct, and with measures undertaken internationally by the Ukrainian academic community to address this important issue. Additionally, the overview of all-Ukrainian statistics on academic dishonesty of students and results of a survey on this problem of freshmen of economic specialties of Donetsk National University of Economics and Trade named after Mykhailo Tugan-Baranovsky are provided; the ways of introduction of academic honesty in the life of the university and development of academic culture are presented; interesting academic materials on the outlined problem for work in training future economists the course of «Academіс Writing» are offered. The authors apply the following scientific methods: theoretical – analysis and synthesis, analogy and thought experiment; practical – analysis of scientific literature on the basis of which conclusions are grounded. The main scientific results are obtained through the use of a marketing research method, including a survey, analysis of the data obtained in order to find out the most acute causes of academic fraud, violations of academic culture and honesty of economic specialities students’ integrity. The authors prove that in order to overcome academic dishonesty, it is necessary to address the human dignity of each student, in addition to the formation of appropriate competencies and skills.

Academic honesty: current status and ways of improvement

Objective: The purpose of this article is to analyze the current status of academic honesty, improvement of its organizational and legal principles. Method: To achieve this goal, such methods as logical-legal and systematic, dialectical and dogmatic, formal-logical, comparative analysis, was used. The interrelated application of these methods led to the science-based conclusions and suggestions. Results: The issues of the essence and significance of academic honesty, the current status of these issues problematic aspect, as well as the ways of qualitative improvement of the legal and organizational principles of academic honesty have been researched. It has been argued that academic honesty is an integral part of both ensuring the quality of higher education and conducting research. The legislative and doctrinal definition of the concept of «academic honesty» has been provided; the types of responsibility for the violation of academic honesty have been defined. Issues related to the formation and functioning of an atmosphere of mutual respect among scholars have been considered both to their own scientific works, and to scientific works of their colleagues. Conclusions: Based on the results of the conducted study, propositions to improve the legal principles for ensuring academic honesty in Ukraine have been formulated.

Honesty Honestly, an Alternative Approach to Academic Honesty

Research studies and experience suggest that many students just do not understand citation and referencing. They say they know the rules, they seem to know the rules, yet still they make mistakes, sometimes with heavy consequences. For those who do understand, there is no problem. For those who understand what is expected by way of good practice, the main difficulty may be understanding the understandings of those who do not understand, those who do not mean to cheat but who still break "the rules." In this paper, I investigate sources of confusion, and possible disconnects between those who teach citation and referencing and those who learn and use these techniques. The study includes a series of surveys of librarians, teachers and students. Strategies and techniques to promote better understanding and better practice are suggested. Teacher-librarians are well-placed to promote and ensure good practice.