Beg, borrow, or steal: determinants of student academic misconduct in Ukrainian higher education

ABSTRACT

Actions underpinned by the lack of academic integrity are increasingly impacting academic processes within the higher education sector around the world. Bribery, plagiarism and other forms of deception that enable students to obtain undeserved grades or degree certificates undermine the purpose and mission of higher education. By drawing on a representative study conducted among 600 students in Ukraine, this paper explores the determinants of several forms of student academic misconduct and provides insights as to which groups of students are more likely to engage in either monetary or non-monetary corruption. Findings show the importance of student's individual variation in one's levels of general corruption perception and moral stance on corruption, as well as the practical constraints on one's time, living conditions, willingness to study independently, gender and size of the city of origin. While paper focuses only on corruption with direct student involvement, it also outlines a research agenda by discussing the importance of second-order corruption, as well as the role of faculty members and administration in student academic misconduct. Findings will be useful for educators, policymakers and other practitioners.

KEYWORDS:

• Academic corruption
• academic integrity
• students
• Ukraine
• higher education
• determinants

Acknowledgements

This study was conducted with financial support provided by the Center for Governance and Culture in Europe at the University of St. Gallen and the Department of Economics at the University of Fribourg. The sponsors influenced neither the research design nor the interpretation of the results. The preliminary findings were discussed at the Comparative Education Society Europe (CESE) conference, May 31 – June 3, 2016, Glasgow, United Kingdom; the Southern Economic Association (SEA) 86th Annual Meeting, November 19-21, 2016, Washington (DC), United States; and the Annual Project Conference: Transnational Contact Zones: Redefining Ukrainian Regionalism, September 14-16, 2017, Odessa, Ukraine. The authors are thankful for all of the feedback they received during these events.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Nataliya L. Rumyantseva http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9795-2590

Notes

1. ‘Buying coursework from a special agency’ has a twofold significance: on the one hand, the students purchase a paper (a monetary transaction), but then they submit it as their own paper (academic fraud). In the current paper we focus on the second point (academic fraud); hence we refer to it as ‘non-monetary corruption’.

2. Zovnishnie Nezalezne Otsinjuvannia (ZNO) (Engl.: External Independent Assessment) – a test that serves as both secondary school finals and university admission exams in Ukraine.

3. ZNO results include four sources: three subject tests plus an average mark from the secondary school. Each source can give a minimum of 100 and a maximum of 200 points, that is, the ZNO result lies between 400 and 800. Some additional points (up to 10 points) can be given for the winners of the all-Ukraine pupil Olympiads or similar competitions, however the number of such entrants is very limited. ZNO results below 500 can be treated as very low; results between 500 and 600 are also considered to be quite low results with almost no chances to get a state placement or stipend; results between 600 and 700 are considered good results with good chances to get a state placement or stipend; results above 700 can be treated as excellent and, as a rule, give very high chances to get a state placement or stipend.

Additional information

Funding

This study was conducted with financial support provided by the Center for Governance and Culture in Europe at the University of St. Gallen and the Department of Economics at the University of Fribourg.