The ins and outs of cheating in college
There are various forms of cheating in college, according to students recently surveyed, and they are not all judged the same. Some 82 percent of students at the University of Arizona said that cheating should be punishable. Interestingly enough, though, two out of three students surveyed also admitted to having cheated themselves, reports Inside HigherEd.
Students admitted to cheating mostly on homework assignments, as opposed to tests, and added that there was a difference between the two. Some 60 percent of students reported to having cheated on homework, while 19 percent say they had cheated on an exam at some point during their academic career.
“Homework seems to be the issue where it’s just, in students’ minds, less of a big deal. That this is not a high-stakes evaluation of their performance,” Angela Baldasare, divisional manager of assessment and data analysis at the University of Arizona, told Inside HigherEd. “That sometimes classroom guidelines are less clear on homework, or what’s permissible with homework, than it is for exams or papers.”
Freshmen were found to be less likely to cheat, with the chances of a student cheating increasing with each year they spent in school. Students in fraternities and sororities as well as international students were found to have cheated the most. According to the survey’s findings, technology was the helper in most cases when it came to cheating among international students. First generation students, those in non degree-seeking programs and students getting need-based financial aid reported cheating the least. Ironically, the more education a student’s parents had the more likely they were to cheat, according to the survey’s findings.
