Academic Dishonesty Among Accounting Students: Some Indonesian Evidence

Abstract

Academic dishonesty among students has been recognised as a major concern in higher education in Indonesia. Accounting research arguably need to give more attention to this issue. This is partly because of the importance of integrity as part of accounting ethics and professionalism. However, little currently known about academic dishonesty among accounting students in Indonesia. We address this issue by surveying 342 accounting students about their perception of academic dishonesty and what motivates such behaviour. Our respondents were from all first, second or third year undergraduate students at one state university in Indonesia. Drawing from Theory of Planned Behaviour, we examine three individual variables-attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control. In addition, we also examine three situational variables-academic integrity culture, definitional ambiguity, and pressure. Six hypotheses were tested, using a Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modelling. The results reveal that 77.5% of respondents admitted committing academic dishonesty. While all individual factors studies have positive significant effect on the intention to commit academic dishonesty, of the three situational factors only pressure and definitional ambiguity have a positive significant effect. Surprisingly, it is found that academic integrity culture does not have a significant effect.

The Role Of Accounting Knowledge In Defining The Career Of A Public Accountant

“…The use of GPA data was not adequate. This was due to the factors of dishonesty (Winardi & Anggraeni, 2018) and boredom during the study term. Thus, this study used a questionnaire containing 12 items of basic accounting knowledge.…”

Academic Dishonesty: Lecturer’s Skepticism, Gender, and Experience

“…The research questionnaire being used came from previous research questionnaires [6] and [11]. This research questionnaire consists of several sections.…”

Determinants of Students Academic Dishonesty

“…Several previous studies have discussed factors that cause academic dishonesty conducted by students [10], [11], [5], [19], [6]. These factors include self-esteem, personal values, and situational factors (culture of integrity, ambiguity, and pressure).…”

“…Culture of integrity [22] refers to agency values that uphold academic honesty and prevent and punish academic violations. Good academic integrity leads to a lower intention to commit academic dishonesty [19]. Indicators of integrity culture that lead to cheating opportunities [23] include the lack of control to prevent and detect violations, the inability to assess the quality of an outcome, failure in disciplining fraud perpetrators, lack of access to information, ignorance , apathy, or indifference, and inadequate ability of the injured party and lack of inspection.…”

“…Ambiguity is a traitor meaningful thing; the possibility of more than one meaning or interpretation of a literary work. Ambiguity occurs when a person does not have complete awareness about the code of ethics, or when they do not receive guidance from the faculty about academic dishonesty [19]. Lack of clarity or lack of awareness regarding academic dishonesty makes students feels that they are not committing academic dishonesty.…”