Moving From Cheating to Academic Honesty

By Eugene Bratek

A recent article in The New York Times cited studies that found "a majority of students violate standards of academic integrity to some degree, and that high achievers are just as likely to do it as others." There is evidence, the article continued, that the problem has worsened in recent years. Donald L. McCabe, a professor at the Rutgers University Business School, told the Times : "I don't think there's any question that students have become more competitive, under more pressure, and, as a result, tend to excuse more from themselves and other students, and that's abetted by the adults around them. There have always been struggling students who cheat to survive, but more and more, there are students at the top who cheat to thrive."

To me, this is quite alarming. If statements like McCabe's are accurate, the questions we should be asking are: What has caused this situation, and what can we do about it?

A 2012 Duquesne University study cited in the article pointed to online tools that make copying others' work easier, noting that the cut-and-paste phenomenon has weakened the sense of ownership of ideas and information. Researchers also pointed to the increasing practice of students working in collaborative teams as a factor in...