“To Cheat or Not To Cheat, That is the Question”: Undergraduates’ Moral Reasoning and Academic Dishonesty

Abstract

While academic qualifications are important in securing jobs, it is inarguable that ethics and integrity are also crucial in the workplace. These concerns are serious and disconcerting given the reports of rampant academic dishonesty within higher education institutions (HEIs). For graduates who think that cheating is acceptable, concepts like ‘morality’, ‘virtue’, and ‘truth’ are subsumed under the imperative of getting the grade. Studies show that there is a significant relationship between academic cheating and students’ potential unethical behavior in the workplace, which is a troubling indicator in terms of overall human resource and national development. This study addresses the issue of undergraduates’ moral reasoning by focusing on their perceptions’ of academic dishonesty and what drives them to cheat. This study employed a descriptive research design method using a self-report questionnaire to collect data from 288 (72 males and 216 females) randomly selected undergraduate students from different programs of study in a Malaysian HEI. The findings reveal that almost two-thirds (59.8 %) of the respondents felt that academic dishonesty is rampant. Interestingly though, while close to 90 % responded positively when asked “are you sure another student cheated during a quiz/exam?”, almost 80 % indicated they would not report such acts of dishonesty. Reasons for this phenomenon is a telling indicator of the undergraduates’ moral reasoning and it is one that HEIs should attempt to re-orientate by way of curricular and pedagogical strategies in order to advocate the culture of academic integrity and by default, professional ethics.