Academic dishonesty, a cancer devouring academia: A Case Study of Academic Dishonesty at Two Zimbabwean Universities.

Abstract

Academic dishonesty has dominated academia for a long time with researchers
defining it, identifying its causes, forms, and probable ways of reducing or stopping it.
The outbreak of COVID-19 saw many institutions of higher learning adopt technology
in their teaching and learning which brought about new forms of academic dishonesty.
This study aims to understand the perceptions and views of students (n=6) from two
different universities in Zimbabwe and writers (n=2) about practicing academic
dishonesty when writing their Bachelor dissertations. This qualitative study adopted
an explanatory case study research design. Interviews were mainly used for data
collection and data was analyzed using Moustakas’ (1994) modified Stevick-Colaizzi
Keen phenomenological data analysis process. The study results showed that
students practice academic dishonesty when writing their dissertations by
manipulating the plagiarism check index, ghost writing, and spousal academic-based
dishonesty. The students also gave reasons for practicing academic dishonesty, and
the flaws of academic dishonesty. The recommendations of the study are varied but
what stands out most is for academic systems to come up with a system that may do
away with the current structure of dissertation writing.