Cheating on academic evaluations: Differences between administrative sciences and engineering majors

Academic dishonesty is a general problem that has been present in universities worldwide during decades and its impact varies from university to university. This paper analyzes the result of a survey applied to a stratified sample of 622 engineering and administration and economics sciences students of Universidad Politecnica Salesiana (UPS) in Ecuador, with a confidence level of 95%, Zα=1,96 and an error of 5%. The results show the percentage of students that cheat in their evaluations in order to improve their grades, how they do it and what students are more prone to committing academic dishonesty. The results were compared to other related research from the United States, Hong Kong, Russia and Poland; thus demonstrating the need to promote courses and workshops aimed at professors, on the implementation of didactic strategies to reduce dishonest practices.