Academic Dishonesty: Why Business Students Participate in these Practices?

Academic dishonesty is a serious problem in schools, colleges, and universities worldwide. Past studies show a high correlation between the frequency of cheating at university/college and the frequency of cheating at work, suggesting that dishonest behaviour is not situation specific. The main objective of this paper is to investigate the reasons students engage in academic dishonesty among business students at one of the public universities in Malaysia. A total of 610 sets of questionnaire survey were collected across 11 programs offered by the faculty. The findings revealed that most students participated in academic dishonesty because the lecturer did not mind the behaviour. This is followed by the assignment/material is irrelevant to the subject and peer-pressure environment. Implications and future research directions are discussed.