Gratifying academic dishonesty, are you not tired?

To attain academic laurels can be a glorious experience. 

It tells a sponsor how thankful you are for their support.

Again, it endows a learner with inner joy and satisfaction for the long sleepless nights burning the midnight candle.

Unfortunately, the extent to which some learners stretch for academic laurels is unbelievable.

To them the thoughts of appearing unintelligent, weak link, lagging behind peers, sense of belonging among the best, pressure from parents, mockery from colleagues, resitting an exam with its cost implications means doing all they can, fair or foul, to achieve academic success.

Over the years, academic dishonesty has taken centre stage in some educational institutions and it refers to committing or contributing to dishonest acts by those engaged in teaching, learning, research, and related academic activities, and it applies not just to students, but to everyone in the academic environment (Cizek, 2003; Whitley, Jr. & Keith-Spiegel, 2002).

Davis et al., (2009) adds that it is deceiving or depriving by trickery, defrauding, misleading or fooling another. They further explained that academic misconduct refers to acts committed by students that deceive, mislead, or fool the teacher into thinking that the academic work submitted by the student was a student’s own work.

Academic dishonesty stifles creativity, reduces confidence and may undermine the integrity of the learner and the educational institution. Such learners struggle to defend their thesis/assignments because it was not accomplished by their sweat.

Nowadays, it’s difficult to determine whether a graduate’s academic laurels were genuinely earned. 

Statistics

I believe a few learners would sincerely own up should I dare ask whether they had ever indulged in academic dishonesty.

Findings suggest that about 4.7 per cent to 62.4 per cent of students in higher educational institutions (HEI) have engaged in a type of academic dishonesty behaviour (Mensah & Azila-Gbettor, Citation2018; Mensah et al., Citation2016, Citation2018; Saana et al., Citation2016).

Awaah, Fred. 2019., in his research on academically dishonest practices in Ghanaian institutions of higher learning found that over 53 per cent of students believe that the leading classroom-related corrupt practice by lecturers in Ghana is the failure by lecturers to provide interim assessment grades before the close of the semester. 

Total

A total of 53.5 per cent of respondents in the study agreed that such a practice was the major of three related academically dishonest acts committed by lecturers.

Is it true that some parents bought exams questions and grades for their wards? Is it true that there is exchange of grades with sex in some educational institutions? Is it true that some ladies in tertiary institutions falsely engage in amorous relationships with the guys, so they help them pass their exams only to ditch them after completion? Etc, etc.

Several factors have been reported to influence both academic dishonesty and attitude towards dishonesty. Examples of these factors include gender, socioeconomic status, personality, religiosity, mastery, academic overload, prior cheating behaviour, substance use, classroom environment, poor cumulative grade point average and peer and social pressures (Desalegn & Berhan, Citation2014; Ives et al., Citation2017; Klein et al., Citation2007; Kuntz & Butler, Citation2014; McCabe et al., Citation2001; Yu et al., Citation2017).

It’s time to act to stop this! I would wish learners align their thoughts, beliefs and actions with the words of a Greek Poet, Sophocles “I would prefer to fail with honour than win by cheating?”

Would you still gratify academic dishonesty? Are you not tired?

The writer is an Institutional Assessment Practitioner.
E-mail: hattanyame@gmail.com