How Frequently Do Students Cheat/Plagiarize?
Donald McCabe, an Associate Professor of Graduate School Management at Rutgers University and President of the Center for Academic Integrity, completed a study of academic integrity in the fall of 1990. Thirty-one academically selective schools agreed to participate in his study, and out of the 6,096 students who responded to his survey 70% admitted to at least one cheating violation in college. Fortunately for Wesleyan, McCabe found that,, “there is definitely less cheating overall at honor code schools than at non-honor code schools. And that difference is strong … 20% at non-honor code schools said that they had never engaged in academic dishonesty … at schools with honor codes, 42% claim that they have not engaged in any cheating.” In comparing his study to one done by William Bowers in the 1960s, McCabe concluded that, “..cheating rates appear to be more or less stable, but they’re stable at a level many of us would consider rather high.” One major difference that McCabe cited
