Unethical Behavior of the Students of the Czech University of Life Sciences

Abstract

The cheating can be viewed as a major educational problem with a broad social concern. The unethical behaviour of students can crucially influence their qualification, future employment and manners in their professional carrier. The contribution investigates the unethical behaviour of the students of the University of Life Sciences in Prague. The goal is to examine if the students would act unethically in an examination tests and in proceeding their assignments. The inquiry investigation based on self-assessments confirmed that the unethical behaviour is quite frequent, more frequent is the exam cheating. The responders do not feel that their behaviour is immoral, they are rather afraid of penalization. The reaction of the teachers and the university is necessary. It is essential to study the reasons of unethical behaviour to apply rectifying measures effectively.Keywords: unethical behaviour, university students, exam cheating behaviours, assignment cheating behaviour IntroductionThe unethical behaviour, exam cheating, and illegal collaboration on assignments including plagiarism are very frequent (Center for Academic Integrity, 1999 ). It is important to deal with the methods and frequency of such behaviour and also with the way it is perceived by the academia.The cheating during the studies leads to the disarray of the goals of the study. The students will not acquire the intended knowledge and skills, further more they adopt inappropriate working methods and immoral attitude to their duties. It is important for lecturers to show students how to establish their own effective learning strategies (Nguyen, 2010).The students continue to apply the improper working procedures in their future jobs what can cause the real economical damages as well as an injury of the employees' reputation (Smith et al., 2002).The students´ attitude to the study influences also the evaluation of the courses, teachers and the whole faculties and universities. It was proved (Jindrová et. al, 2013) that the students with a procrastinating attitude to the study duties are much more critical towards the teachers, the study materials, etc.The university's good name, reputation and competitiveness might be influenced as well. If the unethical behaviour is not systematically and persistently chased and penalized, the university can gain a reputation of a place where everybody obtains certificate without work. The goal-directed students with good study potential are then not interested in such an institution. Finally, the immoral behaviour of the students harms the work of the teachers and managers of the school.

Glamorous Education: Main Features and Manifestations

“…Highlighted by the authors "effort-free" character of glam-education is confirmed by Domeova and Jindrova. They marked the increase in the number of students different in unethical behavior, who try to reach the best results without own intensive and regular work, to get the graduation with minimum effort (Domeova & Jindrova, 2013).…”

Fake Graduates

“…Academic misconduct and unethical behavior of students are listed as serious educational problem of broad social concern; students' unethical behavior affects their qualifications and comportment in their future professional career (Dömeová and Jindrová 2013). Plagiarism, in particular, has been widespread within higher education for as long as some records of such academic misconduct have existed (Ison 2014).…”

Students’ Progress throughout Examination Process as a Markov Chain

“…Dömeová et al, 2011;Vostrá-Vydrová et al, 2012;Jindrová et al, 2013;Dömeová et al, 2013) deal with some courses in the University of Life Sciences in Prague. These studies were based on a self-evaluation of the students expressed in a questionnaire.…”