Academic dishonesty among academics in Malaysia: a comparison between healthcare and non-healthcare academics

Abstract

BackgroundThis study was carried out to gauge the prevalence of academic dishonesty among academics in Malaysian universities. A direct comparison was made between academics of healthcare and non-healthcare courses to note the difference in the level of academic integrity between the two groups. In addition, the predisposing factors and implications of academic dishonesty, as well as the different measures perceived to be effective at curbing this problem were also investigated.MethodsA cross-sectional study design with mixed qualitative and quantitative approaches was employed and data collection was carried out primarily using self-administered questionnaire.ResultsApproximately half (52.5%, n = 74) of all respondents (n = 141) reported having personally encountered at least one case of academic dishonesty involving their peers. The results also revealed the significantly higher prevalence of various forms of academic misconduct among healthcare academics compared to their non-healthcare counterparts. Although respondents were generally conscious of the negative implications associated with academic dishonesty, more than half of all cases of misconduct were not reported due to the indifferent attitude among academics. Low levels of self-discipline and integrity were found to be the major factors leading to academic misdeeds and respondents opined that university managements should be more proactive in addressing this issue.ConclusionsThe outcome of this study should serve as a clarion call for all relevant stakeholders to start making immediate amends in order to improve the current state of affairs in academia.

Examining Factors That Could Lead to Unethical Behaviour in Institutions of Higher Learning

“…Recent study by Tiong, Kho, Mai, Lau, & Hasan (2018) revealed that academicians as respondents have personally encountered at least one case of academic dishonesty involving their peers; and the major factors found because of low level of self-discipline and integrity. The study also identify that the most common form of misconduct is absenteeism from work.…”

“…Chapman 2014Embezzlement, misappropriation of funds, changing students grade for money or favours, selling admissions, selling examination scores or grade, falsifying data, gift authoring, ghost authoring Abanobi 2017Desperation for promotion, greed for money and lack of commitment to the profession Tiong, Kho, Mai, Lau, & Hasan (2018) absenteeism from work, giving of publication authorship to non-contributor, academic plagiarism, covering up of student's exam malpractice, falsification of research data/finding, taking adjunct lectureship without permission from the university, leaking of exam questions, forcing students to buy books or other learning materials, falsifying exam records, writing student assignments for money and accepting bribes to change student grades.…”

The impact of gender and academic achievement on the violation of academic integrity for medical faculty students, a descriptive cross-sectional survey study

“…They may also cause prospective physicians to be deprived of the necessary scientific knowledge, and deviate from one of the most important values of the medical profession, which is honesty [6]. Tiong et al revealed that there was a significantly higher prevalence of academic dishonesty among healthcare academics than among their peers who did not work in healthcare [12]. In research conducted in Coratia, only 9% of 198 sophomores stated that they never plagiarized at all [6].…”

Evaluation of Computer-based Simulation Learning on Knowledge, Learning Approaches and Motivation among Pharmacy Students

“…Building on to our previous findings where academics' integrity and professionalism has an impact to students' skill and competency training, we were interested to determine whether CSL can replace didactic teaching, in order to increase the consistency in teaching by lecturer and to minimise human's errors. 16,17 Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare the effect of CSL and traditional lecture on knowledge, Deep Information Processing (DIP) and motivation among pharmacy students.…”