Students' and faculty's perception of academic integrity in Hong Kong

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to compare students' and faculty members' perceptions of academic integrity; their understanding of experiences pertaining to different aspects of academic misconduct (e.g. plagiarism); and to examine the underlying reasons behind academic integrity violations in a Hong Kong context. Design/methodology/approach: A mixed methods approach comprising quantitative and qualitative methodologies was used. First, a quantitative survey was conducted with students and faculty. Results from the survey were used to generate interview questions for an interview-based qualitative study, which consisted of individual interviews for faculty members and focus group interview for students. Findings: Results from both the survey and interviews showed that faculty members and students do not share a consensus on the definition of the seriousness of plagiarism and collusion. Students, in general, commit misconduct due to academic work, pressure for grades, and teachers' unclear instructions of academic integrity. Faculty members rarely report cases of misconduct to the university and handle the cases according to their own standard. Originality/value: The topic of academic integrity has received increased attention in the past decade from college and university teachers and administrators around the world. Plagiarism is amongst the most widely studied acts of dishonesty in the area of academic behavior in universities world-wide. Not many studies have investigated other acts of academic dishonesty and teachers' perception of academic integrity, especially in the Chinese context. The findings from this study provide useful insights for educators to implement academic honesty education programs, especially within the Chinese context, and especially in Hong Kong. The results also provide the foundations in developing an online academic integrity tutorial for the sampled institution.