More than half of graduate business school students cheat, according to a study by the Academy of Management Learning and Education.
Of the 5,331 students surveyed at 32 graduate schools in the U.S. and Canada, 52 percent of business students admitted to cheating at least once in the past year, compared with the 47 percent of graduate students in other disciplines who made the same claim.
The figures were published last week in “Academic Dishonesty in Graduate Business Programs: Prevalence, Causes, and Proposed Action,” and most likely underestimates the number of cheaters, said Donald McCabe, co-writer and professor of management and global business at Rutgers Business School.
McCabe attributes the higher cheating rate at MBA programs to the ambitious culture of business, which gives students added pressure to be successful.
“The mentality is that the business profession is to get the job, and it’s less important how you get it,” he said. “It’s the perception a lot of students seem to have – what a lot of people think – and they work harder in a sense to convince themselves [they aren’t] cheating anyway.”
Jane Agbontaen agreed that business school students are driven, but said the findings are inconsistent at NYU’s Stern School of Business, where she is in her second year.
“I will agree that MBAs are more likely to push the envelope at times since we are willing to challenge the status quo,” she said, adding that throughout her academic and student activities at Stern, she hasn’t observed as much cheating as the study suggests.
“In general, we do not agree with unethical behavior … because we are very aware of the impact of such behavior,” Agbontaen said. “Everyone loses.”
Roy Smith, professor of finance and international business, has taught at Stern since 1987 and has never reported a student for cheating. He says this is because his grades are based on essays and participation, and he believes “the students respect the school’s honor code and abide by it.”
McCabe said he believes honor codes – which are taken “very seriously” at Stern – are productive deterrents to cheating, as students handle the weight of ethical responsibility.
At Stern, students sign such an honor code upon starting the program, and whether it is effective, there are few reported violations every year, Stern dean Thomas Cooley said. “The intent of the honor code is to make students take ownership of academic honesty.”
Since the code is written and implemented by students who run the Judiciary Committee, it is the students who maintain an “ethical environment in the classroom,” Cooley said.
Stern students also are required to enroll in “Professional Responsibility,” a course that covers responsible behavior through both text and execution of the class. Agbontaen said she had to write “many tests on the cover of the answer booklet” early on.
Another second-year student, Elizabeth Boylan, said she thinks the honor code is effective but not noticed. “I don’t think most people pay attention to it,” said Boylan, who like other Stern representatives added that she has never witnessed cheating.
“We’re all here because we want to be, so it seems silly to have to cheat,” she said. “I believe most students, like myself, don’t even consider it.”
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