Cheating in Medical School: The Unacknowledged Ailment

Assessment of the knowledge and attitudes of the Iranian medical faculty toward plagiarism

This study is among the few investigations that assesses knowledge and attitudes of faculty members of medical sciences universities regarding plagiarism. This investigation focused on the relationship between personal factors and knowledge and attitudes toward plagiarism among Iranian faculty members of medical sciences affiliated with the Ministry of Health. This descriptive cross-sectional study was performed on 247 participants using demographic questionnaires that collected data on attitudes toward plagiarism and knowledge of plagiarism. The questionnaires were uploaded on Porsline. The subjects were provided with the purpose of the study, informed consent, and the link to the questionnaire through WhatsApp. The mean scores of knowledge variables and different domains of attitude were calculated, and then, the obtained averages were compared in terms of age, gender, and participation in ethics workshop using univariate tests. Finally, the MANCOVA was used considering five dimensions of the questionnaire to assess attitude, as multiple response variables, and independent variables, including gender and participation in the ethics workshop and control of knowledge and age. The mean age of the subjects in this study was 38.9 ± 8.4. 79.4% of the participants were women. Overall, 79.8% of people participated in ethics workshops, of whom 78% were women, and 86.5% were men. The mean score of knowledge in men and women was 1.35 ± 0.19 and 1.56. ± 0.24, respectively, which was higher in women than men (PV <0.001). The mean score of total attitudes was 3.19 ± 0.46. There was a high level of knowledge of plagiarism and positive attitudes toward plagiarism avoidance or prevention among participants in this study, which may spread to students, and help to promote integrity in the educational and clinical environment in Iran.

Unmasking the Understanding of Academic Dishonesty Among Undergraduate Medical Students: "Is That Cheating?"

Introduction Academic dishonesty threatens the environs of medical education, wherein medical graduates are expected to exhibit professional honesty. Despite the efforts of institutions and governing bodies, the implementation of an environment of academic integrity is a challenge. We hypothesized that what medical students perceive as academic dishonesty might be different from the prevalent understanding of academic dishonesty among the teaching fraternity. This exploratory study was done to identify and explore in depth what constitutes cheating in the eyes of a medical student. Methods This qualitative study was planned as a semi-structured interview among undergraduate medical students in the second year of study (n=25). The dimensions studied were the individual perceptions of what constitutes cheating, self-reported responses with underlying reasoning to hypothetical academic cheating scenarios, and responses on instances of self-experienced or self-observed instances of academic dishonesty.  Results The responses indicate the ambiguous interpretation of academic honesty by students and four chief themes of the interpretation of dishonesty, based on student understanding. Our results identify core areas, such as the need for a clear and unambiguous institutional academic integrity policy, an environment of academic honesty, and strict enforcement of penalties for breach of ethical conduct, that need to be addressed to tackle the menace of academic dishonesty. Conclusion Themes derived from our study describe student factors, including trivialization of academic integrity, that lead to academic dishonesty. Advocacy for academic honesty in educational institutions must address these factors to enforce institutional standards.

Cheating is a professional identity formation problem

.@kmcowen outlines how medical education could better support students connect their behavior during medical school to their future identities as physicians.

Why we should view the decision of medical trainees to cheat as the product of a person-by-situation interaction

BACKGROUND

Cheating during medical training is a delicate subject matter with varying opinions on the prevalence, causes and gravity of cheating during training.

PROPOSED FRAMEWORK

In this article, the authors suggest that the decision to cheat is best viewed as the product of a person-by-situation interaction rather than indicating inherent dishonesty and/or extrinsic motivation in those who participate in cheating. This framework can explain why individuals who would typically default to honesty may participate in cheating if there is perceived justification for cheating and where situational variables, such as ease of cheating, rewards for cheating and perceived risk associated with cheating, make the decision to cheat appear rational.

DISCUSSION

They discuss why the impression that there is a culture of cheating can provide perceived justification for medical trainees to cheat if they have the opportunity. They then describe how aspects of medical training and assessment may enable or hinder cheating by trainees. Consistent with the person-by-situation interaction framework, they contend that our response to cheating should include interventions directed at both the person who cheated and situational variables that enabled cheating. Recognising that some forms of cheating may be widespread, difficult to detect and contentious (such as the creation and use of exam reconstructs), their proposal for dealing with suspected and pervasive cheating is to identify and target enabling variables such that the decision to cheat becomes less rational. Their hope is that in so doing, we can gradually nudge trainees and the culture of medical training towards honesty.

What facilitates or prevents academic fraud in a Colombian faculty of medicine-Protocol of a study using fuzzy cognitive mapping

INTRODUCTION

Academic fraud is any behavior that gives a student an undeserved advantage over another student. Few studies have explored the causes of and possible solutions to academic fraud in Latin America. We aim to map the knowledge of stakeholders in a Colombian faculty of medicine about the factors that facilitate and prevent academic fraud.

METHODS

Fuzzy cognitive mapping. We will use the approach proposed by Andersson and Silver to generate fuzzy cognitive maps representing stakeholder knowledge. This process consists of ten steps: (1) definition of the research question; (2) identification of participants; (3) generation of ideas; (4) rationalization of ideas; (5) organization and connection of ideas; (6) weighing; (7) pattern grouping; (8) list of links and digitization; (9) combination of maps and network analysis; and (10) deliberative dialogue. To draw the maps, we will invite medical students, interns, resident physicians, master's students, and professors in the faculty of medicine. Four medical students will receive training to facilitate the sessions. Participants will identify the factors contributing to academic fraud and their causal relationships. We will use a combination of network analysis and graph theory to identify the chains of factors with greatest influence on academic fraud.

CONCLUSION

The maps will serve to discuss strategies to reduce academic fraud in the Faculty of Medicine and to identify factors that could be addressed in other contexts with similar problems. This research will allow the students who facilitate mapping sessions to learn about research techniques, fuzzy cognitive mapping and academic fraud. Study registration: Registered in OSF Registries on August 2nd, 2022. Registration number: osf.io/v4amz.

Academic Integrity in Traditional Vs Online Undergraduate Medical Education Amidst COVID-19 Pandemic

Due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, undergraduate medical education made a drastic paradigm shift towards online learning and assessment. This study was aimed at developing a statistical approach to empirically analyze the academic integrity of the online exams. Data were collected retrospectively from academic records of Physiology and Anatomy courses of a private medical college, in which students had attempted sequential on-campus and online modular exams. We developed a statistical model to predict on-campus and online exam scores of undergraduate medical students, from their previous academic records. Hypothesizing that the predictor model contains comparable explanatory power for both exams, we utilized the explanatory power variation (R² statistics) of the improvised model to predict academic dishonesty behavior in traditional vs online exams. Reduced explanatory power (R² statistics) of the model for any mode of the exam, in which students scored considerably different from their previous academic record, was interpreted as indirect evidence of academic dishonesty. Our model explained a large proportion of variation (R²) in overall scores of on-campus and online Physiology and Anatomy modules. Whereas, the model could explain only a small proportion of variation in scores of online theory exams, with a moderate effect size (adjusted R²). Reduced explanatory power for both Physiology and Anatomy online theory exams implies the chance of academic dishonesty in this particular component of the online exam. Explanatory power variation of a predictor statistical model can be further explored and utilized to monitor academic integrity in future online exams.

Levelling the playing field: students' motivations to contribute to an amnesty of assessment materials

BACKGROUND

'Exam recall' is a recognised phenomenon whereby students recall and record questions after leaving the examination hall. This poses two main problems. First, as these questions are only available to peers of the students who recall the questions, these individuals have an unfair advantage. Secondly, the distribution of these recalled questions poses a threat to the validity and defensibility of assessments. To address the first of these problems, we developed an amnesty enabling students to submit assessment material to an on-line site. This study sought to explore which factors influence students' contributions to an amnesty of assessment material.

METHODS

We conducted a qualitative study using semi-structured focus groups. We used convenience sampling and recruited participants from all years of our undergraduate medical programme. The focus groups were facilitated by a medical student peer to reduce the power imbalance and encourage participants to discuss candidly. The focus groups were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Two researchers independently analysed all transcripts using thematic analysis and the research team met regularly to discuss emergent findings. Nvivo was used to assist with thematic analysis of the transcripts.

RESULTS

Twenty-six individuals participated in six focus groups. Six themes were identified through the analysis, which were categorised into motivating factors and de-motivating factors. Motivating factors were a perception that this would overcome inequity, a fear of repercussions, and the perceived usefulness of resources. Factors that prevented students contributing were a culture of competition, a lack of incentives, and mistrust of the medical school.

CONCLUSIONS

The establishment of an amnesty was acceptable to students and they were motivated to contribute materials. The competitive nature of medical careers and the stakes of summative assessments meant that students felt that some peers might still not contribute their materials. Students felt that the school were listening to their concerns and this led to a better dialogue between students and faculty.

The prospects of sitting 'end of year' open book exams in the light of COVID-19: A medical student's perspective

Medical schools in the UK have been forced to dramatically restructure teaching and assessment amidst the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. As part of this, some have opted to assess progression through open book examinations (OBE). I aim to share my thoughts as an unsettled 4th year medical student about to embark on my first set of clinical exams conducted in this format. The difficulties associated with preparing for examinations under such unique and challenging circumstances cannot be underestimated. Working from home, during social distancing, surrounds students with the extra family stresses that we are all facing during this pandemic. This combined with a new, unfamiliar examination format will inevitably lead to students feeling daunted. While some would argue that an OBE may reward good problem solvers, students still require a strong foundation of knowledge. The luxury of reference will not be afforded in all clinical settings thus leading to concerns regarding students skimming over essential learning points. Furthermore, we cannot ignore the increased opportunity for academic misconduct resulting from an open book assessment format. Why are medical schools placing undue stress on students who could instead focus their attention on living compassionately for others during this difficult time?

The impact of gender and academic achievement on the violation of academic integrity for medical faculty students, a descriptive cross-sectional survey study

PURPOSE

The aim of this study is to determine the characteristics of medical faculty students about violations of academic integrity.

METHOD

From the whole population of the 572 students of the Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University Faculty of Medicine, 271 students participated voluntarily in a descriptive cross-sectional survey. Descriptive data were recorded in the survey and a five-point Likert-type instrument, namely the Tendency towards Academic Dishonesty Scale, was used as the data collection tool in the study. The scale included 22 items' means that are considered to evaluate "Tendency towards academic dishonesty" (TTAD) score. In addition, four subscales, namely "Tendency towards cheating", "Dishonesty in works such as assignments and projects", "Tendency towards dishonesty in research and reporting processes" and "Tendency towards citation dishonesty" scores were evaluated separately.

RESULTS

Of the participants, 138 (53.3%) were male. TTAD scores were 2.15 ± 0.61, showing a slight tendency towards academic dishonesty, according to the scale. TTAD scores and standard deviations (SD) were 2.26 ± 0.65 and 2.04 ± 0.55 for men and women, respectively (P = 0.005). There was no difference in the TTAD scores for students whether they had read the ethics code. Significant differences were observed in the TTAD scores for students with gender, different academic achievements and in different academic years. However, when multivariate analysis was performed, the significance shown in the results disappeared.

CONCLUSION

In our study, a slight tendency to academic dishonesty was found for medical faculty students and there were no differences between all of the recorded individual factors of students.

Describing the Attributional Nature of Academic Dishonesty

There is strong evidence that dishonesty occurs amongst medical students, and other allied health students and growing evidence that it occurs amongst medical academics. We believe that accidental dishonesty (or not knowing about the rules of regulations governing academic integrity) is a common attribution describing engagement in dishonesty; however, we believe that dishonest action is more often influenced and determined according to circumstance. In this paper, we aim to work through the literature that frames dishonest action with a focus on medical education, research and publication. We argue that the implications for medical education are far reaching and the root causes of many instances of dishonesty need to be more fully understood so that comprehensive, case-by-case ameliorative strategies can be developed.

Perceptions of Plagiarism Among Medical and Nursing Students in Erbil, Iraq

Objectives

The rapidly rising incidence of plagiarism among students at universities throughout the world requires attention. This study aimed to determine the extent to which medical and nursing students in Erbil, Iraq, plagiarise, their knowledge, understanding and perceptions of plagiarism and the underlying factors that may lead them to plagiarise.

Methods

This cross-sectional study was carried out between January and June 2017 among a sample of 400 undergraduate medical and nursing students at Hawler Medical University in Erbil. Plagiarism-related data were collected through a specially designed self-administered questionnaire.

Results

In total, 280 (70%) medical students and 120 (30%) nursing students were included in the study. The reported prevalence of plagiarism was 54.3%, with a slightly higher prevalence among male students compared to female students (54.9% versus 53.8%; P = 0.820) and medical students compared to nursing students (58.9% versus 43.3%; (P = 0.004). Alarmingly, 34.8% of the students did not know what plagiarism was, and only 28% were aware of the legal consequences of plagiarism. Reported reasons for plagiarising included laziness and the ease with which others' work could be plagiarised, confusion, cultural reasons and pressure to meet deadlines.

Conclusion

There was a lack of understanding of plagiarism and its legal ramifications among undergraduate medical and nursing students in Erbil. The findings of this study indicate that there is an urgent need to increase students' understanding of plagiarism and its consequences so as to reduce the incidence of this type of academic misconduct.

Investigating the existence of social networks in cheating behaviors in medical students

BACKGROUND

Most studies on academic cheating rely on self-reported questionnaires and focus on the individual, overlooking cheating as a group activity. The aim of this study is to estimate the true prevalence of cheating/anomalies among medical students using a statistical index developed for this purpose, and to explore the existence of social networks between anomalies in students' results.

METHODS

Angoff's A index was applied to a sample of 30 written examinations, with a total of 1487 students and 7403 examinations taken, from the 2014/2015 academic year of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto to detect anomaly pairs. All analyses are within the same academic year and not across years. Through simulations, the sensitivity and specificity of the statistical method was determined, and the true prevalence of anomalies/cheating was estimated. Networks of anomaly pairs were created to search for patterns and to calculate their density.

RESULTS

The percentage of students who cheated at least once increased with the year of medical school, being lowest in the first year (3.4%) and highest in the fifth (17.3%). The year of medical school was associated with anomalies (p < 0.05). The network's density was also lowest in the first year (1.12E-04) and highest in the fifth (8.20E-04). The true prevalence of anomalies was estimated to be 1.85% (95%CI: 1.07-3.20%).

CONCLUSIONS

These findings suggest that some students are involved in social networks of cheating, which grow over time, resulting in an increase of anomalies/cheating in later academic years.

Self-reported cheating among medical students: An alarming finding in a cross-sectional study from Saudi Arabia

Academic misconduct/dishonesty has become widespread behavior among many university students across the globe, and medical education is not an exception. Until recently, few efforts have been made to study the dishonest behavior in Middle-Eastern universities. This study examined the prevalence and predisposing factors of cheating among medical students in Saudi Arabia and suggests suitable preventive measures. A cross-sectional survey-based study was conducted at a government medical college during the 2014–2015 academic year. The response rate was 58.5% (421/720). The overall cheating behavior practiced by the participants was 29%, predominantly by male students. High GPA scoring students were the least likely to cheat. The participants living with their families were more likely to cheat compared to those who were living apart from their families. The reasons participants gave to justify their cheating behavior included getting better grades, passing the course, and lacking preparation while still recognizing that cheating is a ‘mistake.’ Overall, significant academic misconduct concerning cheating was found among the Saudi medical students; this misconduct is alarming in a reputable government institution. The implementation of strict punishments, requiring ethical courses and creating ethical awareness by exploiting the potential of Islamic religious belief might help to control this problem.

A preliminary survey of professionalism teaching practices in anatomy education among Indian Medical Colleges

Professionalism and ethics have gained widespread recognition as competencies to be fulfilled, taught, and assessed within medical education. The role of the anatomy course in developed nations has evolved over time and now encompasses multiple domains, including knowledge, skills, and the inculcation of professionalism and ethics. The Medical Council of India recently recommended the integration of professionalism teaching in undergraduate medical curricula. The authors investigated whether the initial orientation lectures and instructions given by faculty at the outset of undergraduate medical anatomy courses throughout India served a "hidden curriculum" regarding professionalism practices, and whether these orientation messages could serve as an early exposure to medical professionalism and ethics for medical students. An online survey was carried out among 102 anatomy faculty members across India requesting details about specific professionalism protocols and instructions regarding behavior in the dissection hall that are routinely given to preclinical students, as well as the importance that they placed on professional behavior. It was found that most faculty members regularly instruct students regarding expected behavior during the anatomy course, including dissection practices. These instructions stress attributes of professionalism like humanism, accountability, and honesty. However, there needs to be a more concentrated effort by educators to prohibit such unprofessional practices like dissection hall photography, and better information is required regarding biomedical waste disposal. Despite the absence of clear guidelines for professionalism teaching in medical education in India, the existing framework of anatomy education provides an opportunity to introduce the concept of professionalism to the first-year medical student. This opportunity may provide an early foundation for designing a professionalism-integrated curriculum. Anat Sci Educ 10: 433-443. © 2017 American Association of Anatomists.

The 10 most wanted test cheaters in medical education

This paper takes on a list of the 10 most wanted test cheaters comparable with 'most wanted' lists used by law enforcement agencies to bring attention to the issue of test cheating in medical education. The research provides an overview of test cheating in modern medical education, presents a typology of common cheaters, and provides guidelines for the prevention and detection of cheating.

No difference in the intention to engage others in academic transgression among medical students from neighboring countries: a cross-national study on medical students from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Macedonia

Aim

To asses if the level of intention to engage others in academic transgressions was comparable among medical students from five schools from neighboring Southern-European countries: Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Macedonia; and medical students from western EU studying at Split, Croatia.

Methods

Five medical schools were surveyed in 2011, with ≥87% of the targeted population sampled and a response rate of ≥76%. Students’ intention to engage a family member, friend, colleague, or a stranger in academic transgression was measured using a previously validated the Intention to Engage Others in Academic Transgression (IEOAT) questionnaire and compared with their intention to ask others for a non-academic, material favor. Data on students’ motivation measured by Work Preference Inventory scale, and general data were also collected. Multiple linear regression models of the intention to engage others in a particular behavior were developed.

Results

The most important determinants of the intention to engage others in academic transgression were psychological factors, such as intention to ask others for a material favor, or students’ motivation (median determinant’s β of 0.18, P ≤ 0.045 for all), whereas social and cultural factors associated with the country of origin were either weak (median β of 0.07, P ≤ 0.031) or not relevant. A significant proportion of students were aware of the ethical violations in academic transgressions (P ≤ 0.004 for all transgressions), but a large proportion of students also perceived academic cheating as a collective effort and were likely to engage people randomly (P ≤ 0.001 for all, but the most severe transgression). This collective effort was more pronounced for academic than non-academic behavior.

Conclusion

Culture differences among neighboring Southern-European countries were not an important determinant of the intention to engage others in academic cheating.

Taking the sting out of assessment: is there a role for progress testing?

CONTEXT

It has long been understood that assessment is an important driver for learning. However, recently, there has been growing recognition that this powerful driving force of assessment has the potential to undermine curricular efforts. When the focus of assessment is to categorise learners into competent or not (i.e. assessment of learning), rather than being a tool to promote continuous learning (i.e. assessment for learning), there may be unintended consequences that ultimately hinder learning. In response, there has been a movement toward constructing assessment not only as a measurement problem, but also as an instructional design problem, and exploring more programmatic models of assessment across the curriculum. Progress testing is one form of assessment that has been introduced, in part, to attempt to address these concerns. However, in order for any assessment tool to be successful in promoting learning, careful consideration must be given to its implementation.

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this paper is to consider the implications of implementing progress testing within practice, and how this might promote or impede learning in the three phases of assessment (pre-test, pure-test and post-test).

METHODS

We will examine the literature on how assessment drives learning and how this might apply to progress testing. We will also explore the distinction between assessment of learning and assessment for learning, including ways in which they overlap and differ. We end by discussing how the properties of an assessment tool can be harnessed to optimise learning.

CONCLUSIONS

Progress tests are one potential solution to the problem of removing (or at least lessening) the sting associated with assessment. If implemented with careful thought and consideration, progress tests can be used to support the type of deep, meaningful and continuous learning that we are trying to instill in our learners.

Academic dishonesty in higher education: students' perceptions and involvement in an African institution

BACKGROUND

Integrity in academic work is a critical benchmark of every profession. For this reason, special attention should be devoted to addressing academic dishonesty (AD) in higher education to prevent the potential transfer of these practices to the workplace. In order to effectively address AD in Africa, further information about correlates of, and barriers to, the effectiveness of existing AD-controlling measures is needed. In Ghana, little is known about AD from the perspective of students. Here, we present a first report of Ghanaian undergraduate students' self-reported understanding of, and support for, institutional AD regulations, their involvement in specific dishonest behaviours, as well as their motivation factors.

RESULTS

Approximately 92% of respondents said they were aware of institutional regulations on AD. However, only 31% rated their understanding as high. Respondents believed that their lecturers had better understanding of, and support for, these regulations than the students (p < 0.001 and p < 0.0001 respectively). Approximately 40% of respondents had witnessed their colleagues engage in AD before, but the majority (94%) had never reported these acts. The pursuit of good grades, high academic load and pressure to please family and guardians were the leading causes of AD. Cheating during examinations and inappropriately sharing answers in the preparation of assignments were some of the highly-occurring forms of AD. Respondents believed that copying colleagues' work without their permission was a serious offense but doing so with their permission was not.

CONCLUSION

Our findings suggest that the sampled students consent to cheating-they believed that they committed no misconduct once the parties involved had agreed on the act. Considering these misconceptions, institutions should do more to help their students better understand the different forms of AD and how to avoid them.

The Brewsters

Background:

One of the barriers to interprofessional ethics education is a lack of resources that actively engage students in reflection on living an ethical professional life. This project implemented and evaluated an innovative resource for interprofessional ethics education.

Objectives:

The objective of this project was to create and evaluate an interprofessional learning activity on professionalism, clinical ethics, and research ethics.

Design:

The Brewsters is a choose-your-own-adventure novel that addresses professionalism, clinical ethics, and research ethics. For the pilot of the book, a pre-test/post-test design was used. Once implemented across campus, a post-test was used to evaluate student learning in addition to a student satisfaction survey.

Participants and research context:

A total of 755 students in six academic schools in a health science center completed the activity as part of orientation or in coursework.

Ethical considerations:

The project was approved as exempt by the university’s Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects.

Findings:

The pilot study with 112 students demonstrated a significant increase in student knowledge. The 755 students who participated in the project had relatively high knowledge scores on the post-test and evaluated the activity positively.

Discussion:

Students who read The Brewsters scored well on the post-test and had the highest scores on clinical ethics. Clinical ethics scores may indicate issues encountered in mass media.

Conclusion:

The Brewsters is an innovative resource for teaching interprofessional ethics and professionalism. Further work is needed to determine whether actual and long-term behavior is affected by the activity.

Fraud and plagiarisim in school and career

Between 0% and 94% of university students acknowledge having committed academic fraud. Its forms are varied: cheating on examinations, submitting someone else's work, plagiarism, false citations, false reporting on experiments, tests or findings in the medical history and physical examination, unfair behavior toward fellow students, and many others. The consequences of academic fraud include learning corruption, useless efforts by students and faculty, incorrect performance evaluations and unfair selection for jobs. Since this can be a prelude to future fraud as doctors or researches, the prevalence, risk factors, motivations, clinical appearances, detection and prevention of the disease of academic fraud are here reviewed.

Cheating on examinations and its predictors among undergraduate students at Hawassa University College of Medicine and Health Science, Hawassa, Ethiopia

BACKGROUND

Cheating on examinations in academic institutions is a worldwide issue. When cheating occurs in medical schools, it has serious consequences for human life, social values, and the economy. This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of cheating and identify factors that influence cheating among students of Hawassa University College of medicine and health science.

METHODS

A cross sectional study was conducted from May through June 2013. A pre-tested self-administered, structured questionnaire was used to collect self-reported data regarding cheating. Data were entered and analyzed using SPSS version 20. Descriptive statistics were used for data summarization and presentation. Degree of association was measured by Chi Square test, with significance level set at p = 0.05. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to assess associations.

RESULTS

The prevalence of self-reported cheating was found to be 19.8% (95% CI = 17.4-21.9). About 12.1% (95% CI = 10.2-13.9) of students disclosed cheating on the entrance examination. The majority of students (80.1% (95% CI = 77.9-82.3) disclosed that they would not report cheating to invigilators even if they had witnessed cheating. Analysis by multiple regression models showed that students who cheated in high school were more likely to cheat (adjusted OR = 1. 80, 95% CI = 1. 01-3.19) and that cheating was less likely among students who didn't cheat on entrance examinations (adjusted OR = 0. 25, 95% CI = 0. 14-0.45). Dining outside the university cafeteria and receiving pocket money of Birr 300 or more were strongly associated with cheating (adjusted OR = 3.08, 95% CI = 1.54-6.16 and adjusted OR = 1.69 (95% CI = 1.05-2.72), respectively. The odds of cheating among students were significantly higher for those who went to private high school, were substance users, and didn't attend lectures than for those who attended government schools, were not substance abusers, and attended lectures.

CONCLUSION

Our findings have important implications for development of an institution's policies on academic integrity. By extension, they affect the policies of high schools. Increased levels of supervision during entrance examination, mandated attendance at lectures, and reduction of substance use are likely to reduce cheating. No significant association was found with background, level of parental education, grade point average, and interest in field of study.