Engineering students and faculty perceptions of academic dishonesty
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to survey students and faculty from the College of Engineering at an American university in the United Arab Emirates about their perception on different issues related to academic dishonesty. Opinions were sought on plagiarism, inappropriate collaboration, cheating on exams, copyright violations and complicity in academic dishonesty. Reasons for students to commit dishonest acts and ways to reduce academic misconduct were also included.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey involving 11 questions with multiple choice answers was developed and distributed to engineering students and faculty at the institution to get their perception of the considered issues.
Findings
Results of the study showed that while faculty and students were generally in agreement in their perception of the frequency of academic dishonesty among students, they greatly differed on the courses of action needed to reduce them. Most faculty members favored applying tougher penalties and using more proctors in exams. On the other hand, students preferred softer approaches such as educating them on academic integrity issues, applying lenient deadlines for assignments and reducing the difficulty of exams.
Research limitations/implications
The conclusions and recommendations of the study are applicable to colleges of higher education having similar characteristics and culture to the surveyed institution.
Practical implications
The findings can be used to understand students’ behavior and faculty’s attitude toward academic dishonesty, and to assess the effectiveness of current strategies addressing the issue at similar universities in the region.
Originality/value
The conducted literature review indicated that this work is believed to be a pioneering case study in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the administration at the American University of Sharjah for approving and facilitating the survey. The opinions included in this study are of the authors and may not represent the views of the institution.
Citation
Tabsh, S.W., Abdelfatah, A.S. and El Kadi, H.A. (2017), "Engineering students and faculty perceptions of academic dishonesty", Quality Assurance in Education, Vol. 25 No. 4, pp. 378-393. https://doi.org/10.1108/QAE-03-2017-0005
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2017, Emerald Publishing Limited