Massive Cheating Scandal Rocks Duke University

A massive cheating scandal at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business has rocked the campus, and has led to concerns that cheating may be on the rise in MBA programs. The incident included 34 students - nearly 10 percent of the school's class of 2008 - and will lead to stiff penalties for all involved.

The cheating took place on an open-book, take-home final exam in one of the school's core classes. According to reports, the professor of the class noticed remarkable similarities to questions on the test, as well as on assignments handed in earlier in the course. Originally, thirty-eight students were brought before the school's Judicial Board, but four were eventually found not-guilty of violating the school's honor code.

The 34 students still under suspicion received harsh penalties. Nine of the students will be expelled, fifteen will be suspended for a year and receive a failing grade, and the remaining nine will fail the class. These penalties take effect on June 1; after that the students will have two weeks to appeal the school's decision.

"There is a great deal of concern," said Mike Hemmerich, the Fuqua School Of Business' associate dean for marketing and communications. "The honor code is a cornerstone for the culture that we have here, and we take a violation of it quite seriously."

Reactions around the Duke campus varied.

"We're shocked that [cheating] could've occurred to this degree," said Charles Scrase, Fuqua's student body president. "The classmates I work with on a day-to-day basic are ethical, outstanding individuals."

Sonit Handra, in his first year at the business school, says the students may have cheated because of pressure to receive a good grade. "Duke is a hectic MBA business school," he said. "And employers want good grades, so there's a lot of pressure to do well."

Regardless of the reasoning the students had, this outbreak of cheating only reinforces a study released last September by Donald McCabe of Rutgers University. His study showed that graduate students pursuing MBA degrees are more likely to cheat, compared to graduate students in other disciplines. Roughly 56 percent of MBA students in his study acknowledged violating the rules, compared to 54 percent of engineering students, 48 percent of education students, and 45 percent of law scholars.

"They'll argue that they're just emulating the behavior they're seeing in the corporate world; they're acquiring a skill that will serve them well when they're out there," McCabe said. "Getting the job done is the important thing," he said of the students' mindset. According to the students, "How you get it done is less important."

What is sure is that the next set of students to go through the class will not have as easy a time of it. Barbara Fasciani, a school spokeswoman, declined to comment directly on the disciplinary hearings, but did make one comment. "I can be fairly sure that the test will not be administered in the same way next year," she said.

Sources:

www.bloomberg.com/apps/news
www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/apr2007/bs20070430_110466_page_2.htm
www.nytimes.com/2007/05/01/us/01duke.htm