Most students cheat in college

Violations of the examination regulations are no exception according to a study

08/14/2012

Cheating in the study is not an exception, but the rule, as the result of a recent, carried out on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research study of the Universities of Bielefeld and Würzburg. Although plagiarism with celebrities such as Guttenberg and Co caused considerable public criticism, most students do not take it with their own work apparently so accurate.

The sociologists of the universities of Bielefeld and Würzburg found out that four out of five students have cheated and nearly 20 percent have already plagiarized, reports "ZEIT Online" from the results of the current investigation. The most varied cheat tricks are used here. During the exam, a little peeking at the neighbors, a cheat sheet in your pocket or chores Copy-and-paste from the Internet - most students are familiar with such methods.

Finding the causes of fraud in college
Although the indignation is when major cases of plagiarism known mostly large, but in their own achievements, many students take it with the honesty is not so accurate. In the framework of the Fairuse study, the research team around Sebastian Sattler and Prof. Dr. med. Martin Diewald, from the Faculty of Sociology at the University of Bielefeld, examines the "individual and organizational-structural conditions" that are the cause of "misconduct and fraud in the provision of study credits". They also determined how many students have actually cheated on their studies. The researchers counted not only the plagiarism, but all violations of the examination regulations.

Most of the students cheat at least once per semester
The Fairuse study concludes that 79 percent of all surveyed students per semester violated the examination regulations at least once, almost one fifth in the form of plagiarism. During the examinations, 37 percent of all students enrolled their neighbors, while among the medical students it was almost two-thirds. A considerable proportion, especially since the students should be aware of the possible consequences of their actions. Finally, in the prominent plagiarism cases Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg (CSU) and the European politician Silvana Koch-Mehrin (FDP), the doctoral degree was revoked. The latter filed an action before the Karlsruhe Administrative Court against the withdrawal of the doctoral title, but the contents of other sources taken over without labeling are hardly to dispute. The fact that many students are not deterred by these cases may be due to the fact that, according to the Fairuse study, only about six percent of the plagiarists fly up and a full 94 percent go undetected.

Physicians and scientists cheat at low risk
In the natural sciences, the risk of getting caught is obviously very low. Because manipulated measurement data is a frequently used method, but "nobody talks about falsifying and inventing measurement results", quotes "Online Time" Sebastian Sattler's statement. According to the paper, the study leader emphasized: "Just as in the media is discussed about student fraud, the natural sciences are fine." Although about one third of all scientists and physicians according to the results of the current study uses falsified measurement results in their work, the risk to be discovered minimal for her.

Study environment with influence on readiness to cheat
The study of the scientists, however, not only examined the students' side, but also looked more closely at the role of the learning environment and the teachers in the violations of the examination regulations. It has been shown that students are less likely to cheat if they are generally satisfied with their studies. In case of strong competitive pressure, stress or test anxiety, the students are more likely to cheat. Also study director Sebastian Sattler sees the lecturers in the duty. This would often limit teachers to a minimum of prevention. This begins with the lack of use of common plagiarism software - although access would be available - and the end when distributing the same exam to all students.

Lecturers called for in prevention
Fewer than a quarter of the faculty indicated in the study that they randomly search individual sets of homework on Google or other search engines to spot plagiarism. In the exams, although almost all lecturers pay attention to the fact that the students sit apart as far as possible to complicate the copying, and also smartphones are usually prohibited. But due to a lack of time, the majority of teachers dispensed with different exam versions. Many lecturers also want to avoid a general suspicion towards their students in order to protect the teaching climate, the paper quotes the study director Sattler. He cautioned against trivializing the violations of the examination regulations at the German universities, even if the copying off with the neighbor was not the equivalent of weeks of sophisticated plagiarism. Sattler argued that "a lot of money is invested in education" and "when people cheat, that's a bad investment." (Fp)

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