UAE students justify cheating, research reveals

Dubai: Many students in the United Arab Emirates find it easy to justify cheating and report that it occurs quite often at universities, recent research has revealed.

Dr Donald McCabe, professor of Management and Global Business at Rutgers University, presented these findings at Zayed University's (ZU) annual convocation where he was a guest speaker this week.

He is the founder and first president of the Centre for Academic Integrity comprising almost 400 colleges and universities in the United States.

Shaikh Nahyan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research and President of Zayed University, inaugurated the event at which faculty members were welcomed and discussed the upcoming academic year.

Shaikh Nahyan also recognised two important milestones the university reached this year, which includes its tenth anniversary and successful accreditation by the Middle States Association of Higher Education in the United States.

"Ten years is but a moment in historical terms, but in that brief span of years, Zayed University has become an essential element of the educational, cultural, and social landscape of the United Arab Emirates."

Commenting on the university's international accreditation Shaikh Nahyan said, "it would have been considered presumptuous, perhaps even outlandish, to have asserted in the year of its creation that by the end of its first decade Zayed University would have full international accreditation".

More than 2,600 students from ZU, Higher Colleges of Technology and UAE University participated in McCabe's survey to gauge their attitudes to cheating.

He compared the results to 80,000 United States students' responses to the same survey but conceded that he was viewing the UAE education landscape "through a Westerner's lens.

Course difficulty

"Unfortunately, a number of students at all three schools justify cheating by noting how difficult some of their courses are - after all, it's the faculty's fault for using difficult materials and tests."

"For example, if they feel the work or the teacher in a particular course or programme is too hard or demanding, some believe it's okay to take shortcuts, even if that involves cheating."

The academic also found that male students cheated more on tests while females cheated more on written work.

Communications, Information Technology, engineering and business students cheated the most and in that order.

Abdullah Julfar, a business information student at Dubai Men's College, said cheating happened less at university than it did at school.

"Some of the students say it's okay to share information. It happens a lot during tests."

American University in Dubai student Natalie Sulaiman said cheating was not common as students would be kicked out.

"It's a major offence and that keeps students from plagiarising. We also have an honour code, which we sign every time we submit an assignment or project."

McCabe said there were more similarities than differences between students in the UAE and their peers in the United States, and across the globe, when it came to their view on plagiarism and cheating. However, there was problematic "helping behaviour" that existed on UAE campuses.

Students reported feeling pressure to help their friends and there was a strong reluctance to report cheating they may have observed, he said.

Why do you think students find cheating to be acceptable? Is it because of falling moral values or increasing academic pressure? Does this call for a change in the way students are assessed?