Cheating in Academic Context – Associations with Study Area, Study Year and Country

Abstract

The paper presents research conducted in order to examine the differences in students' propensity to cheat on exams according to their area of study, year of study and country of study. One of specific goals was to determinate the most dominant reason for cheating. The sample included 210 students (of which 90 freshmen and 120 senior students) from two universities in Serbia (University of Kragujevac and University of Belgrade) (N = 168) and University of Applied Sciences in Austria (N = 42). The sample consisted of students whose studies were in the following scientific areas: electrical and computer engineering (N = 64), management and business (N = 56), production technology and organization (N = 42) and biological sciences (N = 48). Results indicate that, in general, students cheat relatively rarely. Cheating mostly occurs when students are helping their colleagues. On the other hand, cheating is least likely to happen with means of illicit materials. Specific results show that biology students use illicit resources less when compared with other groups of students; that production technology and organization students provide help to other students less than electrical and computer engineering students and management and business students and that Serbian students are more likely to provide help to others compared to Austrian students. However, there are limitations to these conclusions. First-year students have also been found to be less likely to cheat (use illicit resources and provide help to others) than older students.