Students Perceptions Of Cheating And Plagiarism In Higher Institutions

Abstract

There is a growing body of evidence that cheating and plagiarism are prominent problems in many universities. In informal conversations, it seems that different students perceive plagiarism differently. In this paper, we conducted a survey at Howard University to examine or to follow up with this growing trend. Specifically, team leaders in school of business were surveyed early in the Spring Semester of 2010 at a meeting and Freshmen were given the same survey at the end of the semester after their final examination. From the data generated in this survey, we determined the prevalence of cheating and the reasons why students cheat. This report is of great importance because it exposes the extent of academic dishonesty and, if successfully implemented, it could provide resources that would aid universities in solving the cheating problem.