Academic Honesty: Is What Students Believe Different From What They Do?2009, Doctor of Education (Ed.D.), Bowling Green State University, Leadership Studies.
Incidents of academic misconduct are not only prevalent, but are now sharing the headlines alongside business and political scandals. Gaps and lapses in professional judgment and personal moral standards are problematic in many segments of society and have undoubtedly influenced the high levels of cheating in higher education among college students. This study examined, through an adaptation of McCabe's and Josephson's work on academic integrity, the beliefs and experiences toward academic misconduct of undergraduate and graduate students enrolled at Midwestern State University. Specifically, this study examined students' ethical beliefs, types of academic misconduct, frequency of academic misconduct, perceived seriousness of academic misconduct, students' level of familiarity of the University's Academic Honesty Policy (AHP), and each of these variables across demographic characteristics.