The empirical study on academic integrity in industry 4.0 in Vietnamese higher education

Abstract

The rapid advancement of information and technology has reshaped the educational landscape (Nguyen, 2014). While it offers numerous benefits, such as adaptable learning opportunities and simpler access to knowledge, it also introduces new challenges, particularly in the area of academic integrity. With the growth of the Internet and digital tools, activities such as copying, plagiarism, and hiring others to complete assignments have become more accessible. This not only impacts the quality of education but also diminishes the true value of education. Due to the growing demand for scientific research on ethics in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, particularly in higher education, we conducted this study to meet the urgent needs of society by focusing on researching the determinants that influence students' cheating behavior. This study was conducted following the proposed research process of Hair et al (2016) on the PLS-SEM platform and obtained 300 valid responses. The findings indicated that all six factors including Gender, Subjective norms, Collectivism, Opportunity, Pressure, and Attitude influenced students' cheating behavior. Notably, male students are more likely to engage in cheating than female students. However, when considering the nature and beneficiaries of cheating behavior, it can be categorized into two primary types: active and passive. For active cheating, five factors including Gender, Subjective Norms, Pressure, Opportunity, and Attitude affected this behavior. Meanwhile, Collectivism does not influence students' active cheating behavior but this is the most significant factor affecting passive cheating. For passive cheating, in addition to Collectivism, only three other factors influence this behavior including Subjective Norms, Opportunity, and Attitudes. In terms of the overall picture, we discovered that only three factors influenced both active and passive cheating behaviors simultaneously, namely subjective norms, opportunities for cheating provided by the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and students' attitudes. Based on these findings, we suggest several strategies to minimize student cheating and enhance transparency and fairness in the academic environment.