Factors influencing cheating among university students

The article belongs to research category. The aim of the research is to find out the state of students' cheating during university training, students' attitude to teaching and several correlations; find out broader cause and effect connections in this situation. In order to achieve these aims the author used research based on 537 respondents among Slovakian university students of different specializations. The author used questionnaires and standard statistic and qualitative data processing methods. The following results were the most important: • up to 97 % of students cheat from time to time or on a regular basis using classic and modern ways of cheating; • 49 % of students see cheating as a natural thing and are not ashamed of it. 32 % see it from a neutral point and only 9 % have a negative attitude towards cheating; • students of both sexes cheat at approximately the same level. The following statistically significant correlations were discovered: students with internal motivation towards studying learn intensively in order to acquire new skills and knowledge not just to get good marks, those students who devote themselves to study and have positive relations with lecturers are less prone to cheating than students who display different set of aims and behavior. Our results reveal serious value, ethic and professional gaps among students, which lead to decrease in quality level of students' professional education that might have serious negative impact on their professional life. This problem is also aggravated by university organization and management. University managers do not fully realise the scope of these negative phenomena and do nothing to get rid of them or diminish them. The research covers only Slovakian universities so it seems interesting to conduct wider international research in this field, comparative analysis in order to find out whether this is a common thing for many universities. It would be useful to find out more about further correlations of cheating depending on different ways, university management and organization models. The authors provide a set of recommendations that might facilitate the decrease of cheating: conduct complex interdisciplinary analysis of cheating during study; define the most important cause and effect connections and based on obtained results formulate an effective strategy in order to get rid of cheating. It should be aimed at changes in the field of education, policy, values, social relations, management and organization of the teaching process at higher educational institutions, including the study of motivation, effective monitoring and students' performance evaluation. The research contributes to the understanding of the problem making people aware of its seriousness and possible consequences. It reveals certain correlations related to students cheating and analyses cause and effect connections related to the cheating process.