Pupils react while opening their GCSE results at Stoke Newington school on August 21, 2014 in London, England.; Credit: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
During its recent winter quarter, Stanford University reported an abnormally high number of cheating allegations.
In a letter to faculty, Provost John Etchemendy said that one professor even reported as many as 20 percent of students in one large, introductory class might have been involved in cheating. Recent allegations at other prestigious institutions, including Ivies and even a military academy, along with the recent incident at Stanford has raised questions in the world of higher education about whether a culture of cheating is still pervasive throughout American colleges and universities.
Research from Clemson University’s International Center for Academic Integrity shows that nationwide, 68 percent of undergraduates and 43 percent of graduates admit to cheating on a test or written assignment.
Why cheat? Some believe it’s a habit that begins in high school, where Clemson’s research shows 64 percent of the over 70,000 students surveyed admitted to cheating on a test, and 95 percent admitted to participating in some form of cheating. Others believe it’s a result of a curriculum that puts too much emphasis on student performance and not enough on content mastery. And still others say it comes from seeing role models and public figures cheat, often without being punished.
Is there a culture of cheating in higher education? If so, how serious a problem is it? How are colleges and universities learning to cope with cheating in the digital world? What changes could be made to the higher education system to make it more difficult or less appealing to cheat?
Guest:
James M. Lang, Ph.D., director of the Center for Teaching Excellence and an associate professor of English at Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts. He’s also the author of “Cheating Lessons: Learning from Academic Dishonesty” (2013, Harvard University Press)