Academic integrity: a quantitative study of confidence and understanding in students at the start of their higher education

Establishing a positive, proactive approach to issues such as plagiarism requires thatstudents are equipped with the skills and experience to act with integrity and thateducators are fully aware of the attitudes and ability of students, particularly when theystart university. This project used a questionnaire-based methodology to probe theattitudes, ability and confidence of undergraduates newly enrolled at a university in theUnited Kingdom, with a focus on concepts relating to written assignments. Newundergraduates were confident in their understanding of plagiarism, yet performedpoorly on simple tests of referencing. Students were generally of the opinion thatacademic misconduct should be modestly penalised compared to the standard penaltiesimposed by the UK higher education sector. Positive correlations were found betweenconfidence, performance and recommended penalties, suggesting that confidentstudents did better on tests of simple tests of referencing and recommended moresevere penalties for transgressions of academic integrity. These correlations weresupported by findings that new postgraduates were more confident than newundergraduates, recommended more severe penalties, and performed better in thesimple tests of referencing. Findings are discussed in the context of educational needsidentified for students, educators and institutions