A comparison of the role of academic dishonesty policies of several colleges on the cheating behavior of engineering and pre-engineering students

摘要

While universities take a variety of approaches in dealing with academic dishonesty, current evidence suggests that institutions with honor codes have a significantly lower level of self-reported cheating as compared to non-honor code institutions. This paper focuses on five institutions and their effectiveness in dealing with cheating, specifically among engineering or pre-engineering students. Our goal is to provide greater understanding of what institutional approaches appear to be most effective in minimizing cheating among this specific sub-group. The paper presents a predictive model of the extent of cheating among engineering students at these institutions using a variety of variables, including the nature of the academic policies at the study institutions, student perceptions toward cheating on their campuses and other [f9]contextual variables. Results appear to indicate that the strongest predictor of increased cheating among this sample [f2]of engineering students was the sense that cheating was necessary to succeed. Other variables that made a significant impact were the presence of an honor code and membership in a fraternity or sorority.