When appealing to higher loyalties, students believe their responsibility to some other entity, usually their peers, is more important than doing what they know to be morally right. Ultimately, a student will lie their way through their grades because they are given the opportunity to. When an instructor does not uphold strict discipline, opportunities arise for students to take advantage of this situation. The instructor must set an stern environment against academic dishonesty, otherwise a pupil will abuse the opportunity, feeling the instructor does not take cheating seriously. The issue of student engaging in academic dishonesty is one that is continually increasing, as students face a great deal of pressure to succeed academically while many succumb to the trap of cheating. The motives for academic dishonesty include external pressures, adherence to loyalties, and …show more content…
Students blame the teachers for inappropriate behavior because they feel that certain faculty allowed students opportunities to be dishonest and thus were responsible for the students’ actions. Weak institutional policies and unobservant or unconcerned faculty provide a student with what they believe is an opportunity to cheat, a way to level the playing field. This can be a particular problem on large campuses and in courses with large enrollments, environments where it is harder to establish a stern culture. Once a student is given an opportunity to cheat, because of the desire to pass examinations, will cheat. As an occasion to cheat presents itself, the external factors of desire to get the grade prompts an individual to take advantage of the given chance. Many argue that the will of a student to cheat is caused solely by internal factors, not external pressures. However, these critics fail to realize that the way society and the education system upholds grades over self-growth, pressures students into meeting these demands held by their surroundings. In Mary Jo Kreitzer’s article, "What Impact Does the Environment Have on Us,” Kreitzer evaluates how the behavior of a human being is “created by the environment.” Therefore, factors in the external environment constantly exert internal pressure to meet the demands in