Cheating

The Australian's Higher Education supplement claims that 40% of students regard the results of 'faking research' as 'minor cheating' while 11% don't regard it as cheating at all. Academic staff underestimated the extent of cheating by a factor of 3-4. It tuns out about 1 in 4 students cheated. The study, by academics at Griffith University, is based on a survey of 190 academics and 1,174 students in four Queensland universities. The Australian does not mention that the study targeted accounting students with the authors claiming that 'changing attitudes toward what constitutes acceptable behaviour in the business world has been a contributory factor toward a decline in student honesty, particularly with respect to business students'. They further found that 'accounting students exhibit a higher tolerance than non-accounting students for some of the more serious forms of academic misconduct'.

Not that I am picking on accountants - cheating is a general problem in universities and business schools particularly in the form of plagiarism. Anti-plagiarism software is now provided in most universities: this is examined here. I get my own students to submit assignments electronically as well as in hard copy format and raise the prospect of checking which is a deterrance in itself. A suprisingly effective way of detecting plagiarism is just to Goggle phrases in a suspect essay. Of course this will doubtless not have the 'hit' rate of more elaborate software.

Cheating in my view might partly reflect changed community attitudes as the authors of the report suggest. I also think it reflects underfunding of universities with consequent excessive work loads by academic staff and large class sizes. Commercial pressures also impact on students who increasingly struggle to attend class and complete assignments. The AVCC data is old but its implications are clear:

The proportion of full-time students who are in paid employment during semester has increased in the last two decades. In 1984 about five in ten undergraduates were employed during the semester. In 2000, more than seven in every ten students were employed during the semester. Part-time students are even more likely to be in paid employment with almost nine in ten working during semester.

Not only are more students in paid employment during the semester, those who are employed are working longer hours. In 1984 full-time undergraduate university students worked an average of five hours every week during semester. By 2000, full-time students worked an average of 14.4 hours a week, or about two days every week - and nearly three times the hours worked by students in 1984.