A Comparative Study of Attitudes of Academic Staffs towards Academic Dishonesty between USA and Iranian Higher Educational Institutions

Abstract

Cheating has been a global and widespread issue at higher educational institutions. While many studies have done to find out cultural differences in cheating and academic dishonesty of students at higher educational institutions in various countries, few have scrutinized the attitudes of the academic staff on the issue. We studied attitudes and beliefs of 226 academic staffs of two universities: Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences (SBMU) in Iran and Central Washington University (CWU) in the USA. The results of this study show similarities and differences between attitudes and beliefs of the academic staffs of SBMU and the CWU towards cheating and academic misconduct. Our conclusions revealed cultural similarities and differences on the attitudes and beliefs of staffs at SBMU and CWU.