Open PRAIRIE: Open Public Research Access Institutional Repository and Information Exchange
Abstract
The main factors of students’ cheating, such as individual and contextual factors are considered in this article. The institutional level of contextual factors exercises the most significant influence on academic misconduct and corruption in the academic field. There are factors of social microenvironment and normative backgrounds, which assume such forms of behavior as considered normal and obvious. In 2015 surveys of students from a Russian and a Polish university were conducted. Polish and Russian students have the same attitudes about cheating, which in both countries is part of the student culture. There are many similarities in the individual factors of cheating and plagiarism. In both universities, humanities students, unemployed students, and students with better academic results are less likely to engage in cheating. Students who perceive their studying as a formal way for getting a diploma and do not care about grades are more prone to cheating in both universities. However, students in Poland are less involved in all forms of misconduct. We also concluded that their attitudes about cheating and plagiarism are more honest: a smaller percentage of Polish students reported that it is sometimes difficult to study without cheating and plagiarism compared to Russian students. Contextual factors of academic honesty, such as the implementation of ethical codes and other components of an integrity system, are gradually implemented into Polish higher education
