Students' Perceptions of Cheating and Plagiarism: A Case Study

Introduction

Throughout the years there has been a constant concern about the phenomenon of cheating present either in Higher Education (HE) or in the education system in general. Current research has analyzed this issue from various perspectives highlighting both the factors leading to academic misconduct and the appropriate measures conducive to its elimination or diminution, such as norms of good behavior to be followed and punishments for their violation. The punitive dimension of educational policies has often been completed by the necessity to assure students’ moral development within various classes or educational programs designed for this purpose.

In spite of educators’ efforts, academic misconduct continues to be a serious phenomenon affecting the educational process in many universities no matter the country, region or continent. Taking into account the fact that nowadays technology plays an important role in students’ life, cheating possibilities are more numerous and subtle, and more easily to use than in the past. That is why, in the absence of careful detection methods, many of them also involving technology, the most attentive invigilators may find it difficult to discover the ingenious cheating techniques which students frequently resort to, especially during examinations. Moreover, if special computer programs or other detecting methods were not used, it would be extremely hard and time-consuming to identify plagiarism in written works and assignments.

The high or low degree of morality of students’ behavior may determine the course of their future professional life, as well as of their personality as human beings. Educators play a tremendously important role not only in preventing and stopping cheating and other forms of misconduct, but also in molding moral beliefs and correct attitudes to learning and working inside and outside the academic environment. It depends on educators to find the best strategies to obtain students’ cooperation and support for establishing a highly qualitative educational process that will have a long-term effect.

In the light of the ideas expressed above, the purpose of the chapter is to examine academic dishonesty and its forms of manifestation in HE starting from the perceptions of cheating provided by several groups of students enrolled in four Romanian universities. Trying to evaluate students’ degree of internalization of moral integrity and professionalism in the academic environment, the analysis is based on focus groups that show the extent to which students engage in cheating and their reasons for resorting to unethical behavior. As the discussions reveal learners’ behavior and beliefs, they are good indicators of their awareness of academic misconduct and its implications in the educational process as well as in their future development. It is true that the collected data may be subjective, and therefore not wholly trustworthy, because learners generally tend to ‘hide’ the truth when the topic of cheating is under discussion.

As to the phenomenon of plagiarism, the chapter pays particular attention to students’ opinions about this matter, in an attempt to find out if they have knowledge of the meaning of this concept and how much they plagiarize, especially in the case of the written assignments given by their teachers. Based on the same information, the chapter aims to investigate the causes that make students cheat, attempting to provide suggestions for preventing such a phenomenon. Moreover, the analysis of a set of legal measures to combat inappropriate conduct during examinations may offer educators useful strategies to assure morally sane learning conditions at academic level.