Student academic dishonesty: What do academics think and do, and what are the barriers to action?

Abstract

The aims of the study were to explore the awareness of and attitudes towards student academic dishonesty at a South African university, and to explore perceived personal and institutional barriers to taking action against such dishonesty. All full-time academic staff at the University of Johannes-burg were anonymously surveyed during late 2009. The findings indicated a high level of awareness of student academic dishonesty, with few faculty members taking action against it. Four groups of barriers to preventing and acting on student academic dishonesty were identified, with two of these barrier groups being significantly related to willingness to report student academic dishonesty.