Understanding the cheating culture of universities and beyond

Over the past decade, academic dishonesty has evolved significantly, growing not only in frequency but in scale and sophistication. What was once confined to hidden notes or copied answers has expanded into AI-generated essays and outsourced assignments. This shift raises profound questions about integrity, institutional responsibility and the core purpose of higher education where degrees are increasingly seen as mere tickets to upward mobility rather than pursuits of genuine knowledge.

For generations, cheating in exams has been equated with concealed notes, furtive glances and copied answers. These practices have not subsided. In fact, they remain deeply embedded in university systems. In Bangladesh, educational institutions continue to struggle with unauthorised assistance during examinations where students rely on hidden materials or external help to secure grades.

Plagiarism remains a pervasive issue, particularly in tertiary research. It involves presenting others' work as one's own or copying uncited paragraphs, paraphrasing without credit or submitting downloaded content. In Bangladesh, limited training in citation and research ethics blurs lines between errors and intent. Faculty uncertainty about norms exacerbates this, fostering an environment ripe for misconduct.

The problem is not confined to students or to national borders. In 2023, Harvard University President Claudine Gay faced scrutiny for unattributed passages. Reviews confirmed improper citations but not misconduct under Harvard rules, igniting debates on elite accountability.

Tools like Turnitin help detect plagiarism. In many institutions, a similarity score of 15 per cent to 20 per cent is usually acceptable, depending on policy. Still, academic authorities treat misconduct seriously.

On the other hand, the rise of generative AI has changed academic dishonesty in higher education. Tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Grok are sometimes misused to write essays, complete assignments and solve home assessments without proper disclosure which can weaken students' originality and critical thinking. In the United Kingdom, Freedom of Information data reported by The Guardian showed nearly 7,000 proven cases of AI-related cheating in the 2023-24 academic year across 131 universities that supplied data. In Scotland, FOI figures reported by The Scotsman showed confirmed AI-related misconduct rising from 131 cases in 2022-23 to 1,051cases in 2023-24

Faced with this challenge, universities worldwide are rethinking how learning is assessed. In the UK, some institutions have quietly returned to in-person, handwritten examinations while others have introduced oral assessments and viva-style evaluations.

Beyond AI misuse lies a more overt form of dishonesty - contracted cheating where students outsource their academic work to paid third parties emerging as a full-blown underground industry with aggressive marketing and encrypted messages.

In Australia, investigations have shown that contract-cheating companies target university students with promises of guaranteed grades and plagiarism-free work. At the University of Sydney, thousands of academic integrity breaches have been reported with international students often more vulnerable due to unfamiliarity with academic rules and pressure to maintain scholarships.

To understand these patterns, one must look beyond technology and enforcement to student motivations. Across contexts, academic pressure, fear of failure and relentless competition consistently emerge as key drivers of cheating. In many societies including Bangladesh- a university degree is often viewed less as an intellectual journey and more as a passport to employment, social mobility and family expectations. When success is narrowly defined by grades and outcomes, students become more vulnerable when they feel overwhelmed, underprepared or unsupported.

Cheating does not happen alone. University culture strongly affects student behaviour. When students see others getting high grades, scholarships, or top opportunities through unfair means, they can lose trust in the system. Over time, honesty may seem foolish while cheating seems rewarded. That is why stronger punishment alone is not enough.

Universities need to build a culture where learning matters more than marks and academic honesty is taken seriously. They should make integrity rules clearer and redesign assessments to focus more on critical thinking and real understanding, not only high-pressure exams or memory-based tests. At the same time, tools like Stealth AI and HIX AI are now being used by students to improve assignments, so a structured framework is required for the universities to properly check and balance such usage in this digital era.

At the same time, academic integrity must be reinforced through leadership. Faculty members and university administrators play a central role in shaping institutional norms. When ethical standards are consistently upheld at the highest levels, they signal to students that integrity is not negotiable but integral to academic life.

The rise of cheating among university students reflects deeper tensions in higher education, between technology and tradition, ambition and ethics, as well as access and accountability. If these issues are not addressed, the damage will go far beyond exam results. It will weaken public trust in universities and raise serious questions about the value and credibility of higher education itself.

The writer is a student in the Department of Criminology at Dhaka University.

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