Prevalence, perception and attitude of dental students towards academic dishonesty and ways to overcome cheating behaviors

Background: The aim was to assess the attitude, perception and prevalence of cheating behavior by dental students and to determine various methods they used to commit the dishonest act and ways to create an environment to reduce the malpractice. Materials and Methods: Closed-ended questionnaire was designed and distributed to 200 undergraduate students in various colleges of Dental Institution in India. The data were analyzed for percentage proportions. Results: About 76% of students confessed to having participated in the act of cheating and 60% respondents strongly agreed to cheat owing to the pressure and workload that the dental college curriculum includes. Most common methods used to cheat were to directly peep into other people’s paper. Getting professional patients during clinical exams were not considered as a serious issue by many respondents. Majority of the students strongly agreed for raising the awareness of ethics and invigilators to be instructed to strictly monitor the examination hall. Conclusion: Academic dishonesty is a serious concern among dental students because of the career they will embark on as health care professionals. Hence, it’s exceptionally crucial for us as mentors to consider the issue seriously and work on it by considering measures to reduce the pressure and workload of students and to undertake vital steps to reduce cheating behavior.