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Contract cheating: A survey of Australian university students
journal contribution
posted on 2023-11-21, 01:32 authored by Tracey Bretag, Rowena Harper, Michael Burton, Cath Ellis, Philip Newton, Pearl Rozenberg, Sonia Saddiqui, Karen van HaeringenKaren van HaeringenRecent Australian media scandals suggest that university students are increasingly outsourcing their assessments to third parties – a behaviour known as ‘contract cheating’. This paper reports on findings from a large survey of students from eight Australian universities (n = 14,086) which sought to explore students’ experiences with and attitudes towards contract cheating, and the contextual factors that may influence this behaviour. A spectrum of seven outsourcing behaviours were investigated, and three significant variables were found to be associated with contract cheating: dissatisfaction with the teaching and learning environment, a perception that there are ‘lots of opportunities to cheat’, and speaking a Language Other than English (LOTE) at home. To minimise contract cheating, our evidence suggests that universities need to support the development of teaching and learning environments which nurture strong student–teacher relationships, reduce opportunities to cheat through curriculum and assessment design, and address the well-recognised language and learning needs of LOTE students.
Funding
Category 2 - Other Public Sector Grants Category
History
Volume
44Issue
11Start Page
1837End Page
1856Number of Pages
20eISSN
1470-174XISSN
0307-5079Publisher
Informa UK LimitedPublisher DOI
Language
enPeer Reviewed
- Yes
Open Access
- No
Era Eligible
- Yes