Academic cheating : A qualitative study of how students motivate actions that have led to disciplinary actions

This is a qualitative study that has reviewed decision reports on academic cheating with content analysis as a method, aimed to investigate the actions that has led to disciplinary action and illustrate how students motivate their actions. The result shows that plagiarism is the main act that has led to disciplinary action. In the cheating plagiarism, the approach varies from the fact that the plagiarized texts may originate from students from other universities, classmates or it may be the result of collaboration between students. In the other cheating form unauthorised aids, the procedure is similar to the approach in terms of students bringing unauthorised aids on the examination. What varies is what kind of assistant students bring such as mobile phones, notes or writing sheets. The study can determine that student motivations for their actions may vary but include causes such as mistakes, pressed study situations and lack of resources, lack of time and stress, lack of knowledge and misinterpretations of the university rules