Academic misconduct among medical students

Objectives: To explore attitudes and behaviour in medical students to scenarios involving academic misconduct and to determine the association between attitudes and behaviour.

Methods: In August 2008, a cross-sectional survey using an anonymous, self-administered questionnaire was conducted at the Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University. All first year medical students were subjects. Completed questionnaires were collected and analyzed.

Results: Of the 291 medical students, 247 (84.9%) completed the questionnaire. The majority of medical students felt that most scenarios were wrong but admitted to engaging in at least one of the scenarios. In all, 139 (56.7%) students responded that cheating should be reported. Only 22 (9.1%) of the students stated that they had or would consider cheating or had witnessed such events. Fourteen out of 22 items showed significant association between attitudes and behaviours. No scenario demonstrated a negative relationship between attitudes and behaviour.

Conclusion: The proportion of first year medical students engaging in academic misconduct was high, although they considered it wrong. There were associations between students’ attitudes and behaviour in most of the scenarios.