Academic dishonesty: Zimbabwe university lecturers’ and students’ views

Abstract

The study sought to establish Zimbabwe university lecturers’ and students’ views on academic dishonesty with a focus on the forms of academic dishonesty practised by undergraduate students, reasons for the dishonesty and ways of minimising the dishonesty. A survey design was used. Thirty one lecturers and 77 second and third year Bachelor of Arts undergraduate students participated in the study. Frequencies and percentages were used in the analysis of the data. The study established that a number of forms of academic dishonesty were practised by students at the university. The forms of academic dishonesty included plagiarism, copying other students’ assignments, fabricating sources of information, taking unauthorised material into the examination room, exchanging notes in the examination room, faking illness to justify late submission of assignments or non-attendance of lectures or tutorials and writing assignments for others. Students viewed the reasons for academic dishonesty as main externally determined while lecturers viewed them as mainly internally determined. Strategies suggested by both lecturers and students to minimize academic dishonesty included stringent measures against offenders, thorough and strict marking, teaching students about how to cite sources of information, improving the provision of reading resources, improved lecturing and strict invigilation. Lecturers felt that students needed to be encouraged to consistently study hard.