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Browsing SHSS Projects, Theses and Dissertations by Subject "Academic dishonesty"
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- ItemThe Ethical perspective of cheating in examination among university students in selected universities in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya(Strathmore University, 2020-09) Waweru, Stephen KimaniDifferent research on cheating confirms widespread and prevalent academic dishonesty in academic institutions in the world and shows that some types of cheating have increased considerably in the past decades. This study sought to investigate the ethical perspective of cheating in examination among university students in selected universities in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya. Its objectives were, to investigate the possible causes of examination cheating, to assess the influence of individual character towards cheating in examinations, to analyze whether university students are aware of the ethical implications of cheating in examinations and to find out the measures adopted by universities to mitigate against cheating in examinations. It was guided by the normative theories namely Utilitarianism, Deontology and Virtue Ethics together with some insights from the three Stages of development of Soren Kierkgaard. In addition, adopted grounded theory research design. The target populations of the study were chaplains and undergraduate students in 2nd and 4th year of study. The study used interview schedule to collect data and all the respondents were interviewed until the point of saturation as guided by Morse (1994) saturation rate of 30 – 50 interviews in line with grounded theory. Thematic analysis was used to analyze data with regard to the research objectives. The study indicated that different factors drive students to cheat in examination, key among them being decline in society’s ethical and moral performance. It was also revealed that students’ character influence cheating in examination; therefore character transformation is central since being ethical is not the same as doing whatever society accepts to be the right thing to do. In addition, examination malpractices influence the society’s development negatively; this ranges from destroying the moral integrity of the persons involved to producing counterfeit graduates which affects the very core of human progress and breeds criminals within the society. Lastly it was found that examination malpractices are perpetuated by the unwillingness and deliberate failure to enforce the law against cheating in examination. The study therefore recommended that universities should put in place measures that would tighten its laws and impose sanctions against university employees, lecturers, students and anybody who is involved in examination malpractices; they should create awareness to its students about obeying the rules and regulations governing examinations. Parents should take their rightful place in the family by inculcating the life of virtue to their children that would ensure good character and the Ministry of education should include the teaching of ethics in the competence based curriculum (CBC) and also at the secondary, tertiary colleges and university levels