The Academic Honesty Expectations Gap:
An Analysis of Student and Faculty Perspectives

Abstract

Responding to calls for increased ethics research in the wake of corporate scandals, this study analyzes accounting student and faculty views toward academic honesty. An instrument presenting vignettes involving potential academic dishonesty was administered to 458 accounting students and 177 accounting faculty. Participants assessed the extent to which the characters described in the situations behaved in an academically honest manner and the extent to which they should be penalized. Results indicate that students and faculty view many situations involving academic honesty differently, implying that an academic honesty expectations gap exists. Results also show that both students and faculty are aware of the gap. There were no significant differences between students and faculty regarding behaviors that were more clearly honest or dishonest. The biggest gap exists for “gray area” situations. These results suggest the importance of establishing a dialogue with students on academic honesty and faculty expectations.