Accounting students' perceptions of questionable academic practices and factors affecting their propensity to cheat

Abstract

A wave of discussion involving ethics and accounting education has recently taken place. However, before accounting educators can design curricula with the most positive impact on the moral development of accounting students, educators need to have an idea of where their students stand on a variety of ethical issues. For example, there is an absence of information describing the ethical reasoning of accounting students as it relates to academic dishonesty. Knowing how accounting students feel about academic dishonesty is important. Sierles et al.(1980) found there was a continuum from cheating in college, to cheating in medical school in didactic areas, to cheating in clerkships in patient care. Thus, cheating in school may be an early warning of a propensity to engage in unethical practices during one's professional career. This study provides descriptive information concerning accounting students and academic dishonesty. First, students' perceptions of questionable academic activities are presented. Next, detail about the ‘cheating’ environment at several large public institutions and information concerning the perceived effectiveness of methods commonly used to deter cheating on examinations is presented. Lastly, a logistic regression model provides further insights into factors which may influence students' propensity to cheat.

Keywords:

• academic dishonesty
• cheating
• judgment
• ethics