[[alternative]]Academic Dishonesty among College Students and Its Related Factors-A study based on Four Universities in the Greater Taipei Area

[[abstract]]The study was to examine college students’ academic dishonesty, its relation to their perception of peers’ academic dishonesty, and the judgment of the seriousness of academic dishonesty. The factors related to academic dishonesty, such as student background variables and their time use were also examined. Data analyzed was collected with a self-developed questionnaire, which was administered to 897 college students from four universities in the Greater Taipei area. The main findings and conclusions are as follows: 1. Academic dishonesty is widespread. 70.8% of college students in the Greater Taipei area were involved in at least one of the 28 types of academic dishonesty within one academic year. 2. The college students’ academic dishonesty can be predicted from their perception of peers’ academic dishonesty and how serious do they view such offense. 3. Female students are more judgmental than their male counterparts toward academic dishonesty. Students under 19 years old perceived more academic dishonesty in their peers. Male students, or students at private universities, or in colleges of engineering confessed to have been more involved in academic cheating. Students of the bottom fifth in the class were less judgmental toward academic cheating, more aware of their peers’ cheating, and tended to commit cheating more frequently. 4. College Students with the following ways of using their time tended to cheat more frequently: those who were inattentive in class, who spent less than 15 hours per week on off-class academic activities, who felt their off-class academic activities as unproductive, who spent more than 31 hours per week on part-time jobs, and those worked in food service or were engaged in physical labor.