Reported recently by the Associated Press, Duke University has been under intense scrutiny for its recent uncovering of 34 students in its business school for alleged cheating. This was according to the associate dean of the business school. After a complete review of previous coursework, they found enough evidence to expel 15 of students, fail 9 of them from the course, one student was given a failing grade for a single assignment, and the remaining students were found not guilty.
According to an article published last year by Reuters, a study was done in which grad students were asked if they have ever cheated, and if they thought cheating was acceptable. From the study they found 56% of business majors found cheating acceptable as long as it got the job done right. It doesn’t quite end there unfortunately; engineering majors came in at 54%, followed by science majors at 50%, and a disturbing 49% for medical majors.
Academic dishonesty doesn’t just stop behind the ivy covered halls of higher education. According to the Huston Chronicle, enlistees at the United States Air Force Academy were given an exam to test their knowledge about the Air Force. After an investigation was done, fifteen cadets were expelled for cheating on the test, 3 cadets resigned, and 13 were placed on probation. These events come 3 years after 69 cadets were suspected of cheating, 7 cadets voluntarily resigned, 12 admitted cheating, and 7 were found guilty for cheating on an etiquette test. Commanding officers were able to intercept cadets forwarding test answers through an Internet social group and sending private computer messages containing the test’s answers.
It’s not higher educations fault entirely, according to an Idaho high school it’s gotten so bad that students have been caught continuously evading the electronics ban during tests. Students have been caught taping notes on their digital music players, then threading the ear buds under clothing or taping the buds behind their ears. Teachers have caught students hiding digital equipment under hats and under shirt collars. Canada and Australia have similar electronic bans during exams, but students were even caught editing lyric files on their media devices to output formulas, some even embedded their own voice reciting formulas directly into songs. With advancing technology and a few hundred dollars it’s possible to get spy grade equipment to make cheating even more covert.
According to the New Zealand Qualifications Authority, they’ve seen a 50% increase in high school students who have been suspected of cheating.
And let’s not forget the Montana resident who cheated during a fishing competition by stashing prize winning fish in a hidden area on the lake, and apparently he was caught on video retrieving those fish during the competition after claiming he just caught them.
So, where does this leave us? We have enough evidence that cheaters when caught are punished. Society does not give a pass to those who cheat, but then why do people still cheat? The answer is simply that society puts a lot of pressure on people to succeed, and even more pressure on them to get the job done right and on time. When we don’t emphasize that “do your best” isn’t the same as “by any means necessary” we end up with population that believes that the ends justify the means.
It’s true that the majority of our job skills are learned on the job. The majority of what got us into that job was based on how well we followed directions and remembered things. When people get ahead by cheating, it just means that person is incapable of thinking for themselves. In the end, the cheater gets cheated.
