The Ethical perspective of cheating in examination among university students in selected universities in Uasin Gishu County, Kenya
Date
2020-09
Authors
Waweru, Stephen Kimani
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Strathmore University
Abstract
Different 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
Description
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Masters in Applied Philosophy and Ethics at Strathmore University
Keywords
Academic dishonesty, Ethical perspective, Examination