Cutting Corners: Students’ Perceived Academic Corruption at Universities in Accra.

Abstract

Today, corruption is a major concern in nearly all higher education systems across the globe; it is a complex phenomenon, which has become particularly evident within the academic arena involving all the stakeholders. Generally, this thesis sought to explore from the students' perspective, the perceived academic corruption at universities in the region of Accra. The study, specifically, sought to examine the extent to which students, faculty members, and administrators were involved in academic corruption and how the influences of peer and faculty affected students‟ intentions to engage in corrupt activities. Employing the mixed methods approach, data were collected from three universities in Accra, and in all, a total of 380 students participated in the survey whiles 10 students participated in the in-depth interviews. The study revealed that corruption at these universities takes the forms of exchanging money for grades, exchanging money for certificates, paying for exams questions, exchanging sex for grade, seeking sexual favours, favouring of friends and relatives, selling of hand-out or books compulsorily and paying of unapproved charges, and it involved students, faculty members, and administrators. The study further disclosed that students were generally passive to report corrupt activities; however, the influence of peers in predicting students‟ corrupt intentions was stronger than the influence of faculty. In effect, the presence of this cancer on our university campuses is affecting teaching and learning.