Did you know? Facts about Cheating
According to the International Center for Academic Integrity ( ) the rate of cheating among undergraduates and graduate students on college campuses is:
Undergraduate students (~71,300 respondents)
- 39% admit to cheating on tests
- 62% admit to cheating on written assignments
Graduate Students (~17,000 respondents)
- 17% admit to cheating on tests
- 40% admit to cheating on written assignments
These data are based on a set of surveys conducted from Fall 2002 to Spring 2015.
McCabe, D.L., Butterfield, K.D., Trevino, L.K. 2017. Cheating in College: Why Students Do It and What Educators Can Do about It. Johns Hopkins University Press.
Students cheat for one of four reasons:
- Convenience – The opportunity is available at a time when they are feeling short of time. The variety of resources available electronically is staggering, omnipresent, and certainly contributes to the convenience aspect.
- Desperation – They need a good grade and feel that they have no other option. This may be related to lack of good time management and planning.
- Ignorance – Students may not understand what constitutes plagiarism, particularly if the only types of citation they have done in the past is direct quotation.
- Perception that they won’t get caught – Many students believe that cheating is common and that faculty just don’t check.
For more information on Academic Integrity see