Academic Dishonesty among Saudi Preparatory Year Program Students:
[Thesis]
Nuriddin, Ahmad
Their Perceptions and Suggestions to Promote Academic Integrity
Johnson, John S.
Northcentral University
2019
135
Ed.D.
Northcentral University
2019
Incidences of academic dishonesty among college students have been on the increase in recent decades. This study addressed means of identifying and deterring academic misconduct among Preparatory Year Program students at a university in Saudi Arabia. Students, faculty, and the wider Saudi community are impacted by the problem addressed in this research, for the behavior that students develop in college will most likely be manifested in their professional lives. The purpose of the study was to examine students' perception of academic dishonesty, and the theoretical framework used was the Theory of Planned Behavior. The study was a qualitative research using the case study design. The participants were students at the Saudi university: 26 were interviewed. The research questions focused on students' engagement in academic dishonesty and the reasons behind their participation in such behavior. Data were collected through individual interviews; participants were guaranteed confidentiality and were asked to sign a consent form. Each interview was recorded and transcribed for analysis. The data were analyzed for recurring themes. The NVivo 12 software was used to assist in the process. The results of the study indicated that students rationalized some acts of academic dishonesty as "helping" their fellow students while admitting that cheating was against their cultural and religious values. The conclusions reached from this study have implications for educators to identify potential cases of academic misconduct with the view of deterrence; also, there are implications for the students concerning their behavior in relation to their future performance as professionals. Further research is needed among students who were the recipients of help from other students. Similar research is also needed among students in other preparatory programs to determine the extent of the findings of this study throughout Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region.