Cheating Among International Students: A Challenge for Admission and Education in U.S. Colleges

• In Event: The Complex Issues of Education From Across the Boarders

Abstract

Are international students in college more likely to cheat? Can college entrance examinations predict such behavior? By analyzing confidential institutional data collected from a major public university in the U.S., we have conducted the first study ever on the distribution of cheating cases among different student groups in relation to other institutional records, including gender, nationality, and admissions records. We found that international students have a disproportionally high academic cheating rate, largely attributed to the fact that Chinese students were more likely to commit such violations. Performance on college entrance exams was negatively correlated with the occurrence of cheating, although the predictive power of those tests was extremely low. Nationality is the strongest predictor.

Authors

• Perry P. Gao, Education Bridge Institute

• Arvid Nagel, St.Gallen University of Teacher Education