Cheating on examinations and its predictors among undergraduate students at Hawassa University College of Medicine and Health Science, Hawassa, Ethiopia

Abstract

BackgroundCheating on examinations in academic institutions is a worldwide issue. When cheating occurs in medical schools, it has serious consequences for human life, social values, and the economy. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of cheating and identify factors that influence cheating among students of Hawassa University College of medicine and health science.MethodsA cross sectional study was conducted from May through June 2013. A pre-tested self-administered, structured questionnaire was used to collect self-reported data regarding cheating. Data were entered and analyzed using SPSS version 20. Descriptive statistics were used for data summarization and presentation. Degree of association was measured by Chi Square test, with significance level set at p = 0.05. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to assess associations.ResultsThe prevalence of self-reported cheating was found to be 19.8% (95% CI = 17.4-21.9). About 12.1% (95% CI = 10.2-13.9) of students disclosed cheating on the entrance examination. The majority of students (80.1% (95% CI = 77.9-82.3) disclosed that they would not report cheating to invigilators even if they had witnessed cheating. Analysis by multiple regression models showed that students who cheated in high school were more likely to cheat (adjusted OR = 1. 80, 95% CI = 1. 01–3.19) and that cheating was less likely among students who didn’t cheat on entrance examinations (adjusted OR = 0. 25, 95% CI = 0. 14–0.45). Dining outside the university cafeteria and receiving pocket money of Birr 300 or more were strongly associated with cheating (adjusted OR = 3.08, 95% CI = 1.54-6.16 and adjusted OR = 1.69 (95% CI = 1.05-2.72), respectively. The odds of cheating among students were significantly higher for those who went to private high school, were substance users, and didn’t attend lectures than for those who attended government schools, were not substance abusers, and attended lectures.ConclusionOur findings have important implications for development of an institution’s policies on academic integrity. By extension, they affect the policies of high schools. Increased levels of supervision during entrance examination, mandated attendance at lectures, and reduction of substance use are likely to reduce cheating. No significant association was found with background, level of parental education, grade point average, and interest in field of study.

Performance and Attitude of Undergraduate Students of Golestan University of Medical Sciences Towards Cheating in Exams

“…Approximately half of the present study participants stated that they cheated in exams while being a student, which is consistent with the results of a study reporting the phenomenon of cheating as a dilemma in education (2). In the last five years, 117 articles have been published on cheating according to the PubMed data bank.…”

“…In the present study, less than half of students admitted that their cheating had been discovered by the examiners and sometimes had led to their expulsion from the exam session.Desalegn and Behranreported that the cheating of the majority of participants (80.1%) was not disclosed and that students do not report cheating to exam proctors even if they witness cheating (2). Increased levels of supervision by exam proctors during exam sessions may affect the identification of those cheating.…”

“…Academic dishonesty has become a major concern in Iranian universities, and universities of medical sciences are no exception (2). Given the sensitivity of the issue, committing this violation is more serious for medical students, their subgroups, and medical education centers (3) because it can cause grave consequences for human life and social and economic values (4).…”

Insidious, Invasive, Invisible: Academic Dishonesty and On-Going Assessments in Higher Education

“…Ahmadi's (2012) study of 132 language students in a university in Iran, revealed that cheating is prevalent 'justified' by various reasons such as "not being ready for exams"; "the difficulty of the exams"; "lack of time to study" and "careless and lenient instructors." A recent study by Desalegn and Berhan (2014) reported that undergraduate medical students in Hawassa, Ethiopia cheated mainly on the entrance examinations and students who cheated in high school had a higher tendency to cheat when entering the university. This finding can be extrapolated to tie in with that of the study mentioned earlier on the report of the cheating among high schools students in the US.…”

“…For years, AD has been considerably studied and debated (Huang, Yang & Chen, 2015;Desalegn & Berhan, 2014) ) as a topic of concern among university educators. AD, according to Callahan (2004) can be defined as a type of rule-breaking behaviour undertaken by an individual to get ahead of others academically, professionally or financially.…”