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Click to Cheat: Unraveling Internet-Facilitated Academic Misconduct Among Undergraduate Students

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  • Yuehua Wu

    (Shanghai Jiao Tong University)

  • Yuchen Wang

    (Shanghai Jiao Tong University)

  • Sandra Asantewaa Mensah

    (Shanghai Jiao Tong University)

Abstract

While the internet has revolutionized academic study and research, it has also facilitated academic misconduct, presenting new challenges in maintaining academic integrity worldwide. This study, primarily drawing on the social cognitive theory, surveyed undergraduates at three universities in China to examine the status and working mechanism of undergraduates’ internet-facilitated academic misconduct (IFAM). The results revealed notable disparity in IFAM across different academic disciplines and highlighted the distinctive roles of personal and environmental factors in predicting IFAM behaviors. Specifically, moral attitude towards IFAM negatively predicted both IFAM actual and response behaviors. Peer IFAM demonstrated a significant positive effect on IFAM actual behavior and a marginally significant effect on response behavior. A restrictive school environment was found to predict only IFAM actual behavior, while academic self-efficacy predicted only IFAM response behavior. Surprisingly, the personal trait of dishonesty was found not predictive of IFAM behaviors. This study advances existing research on academic misconduct in the digital age, offering a nuanced understanding of IFAM among undergraduates and providing actionable insights for fostering academic integrity in contemporary higher education.

Suggested Citation

  • Yuehua Wu & Yuchen Wang & Sandra Asantewaa Mensah, 2025. "Click to Cheat: Unraveling Internet-Facilitated Academic Misconduct Among Undergraduate Students," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 66(7), pages 1-22, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:reihed:v:66:y:2025:i:7:d:10.1007_s11162-025-09859-1
    DOI: 10.1007/s11162-025-09859-1
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