Donald McCabe, Professor of Management and Global Business at Rutgers University in the US, carried out a survey on attitudes to cheating at three UAE universities.

“Slightly more than 40 per cent of UAE students consider ‘cut and paste’-type plagiarism from the Internet as either not cheating or only trivial cheating,” he said. “This is similar to the US.”

McCabe’s survey was carried out among more than 2,600 students from Zayed University, Higher Colleges of Technology and UAE University.

He said attitudes to using ghostwriters are similar to those for ‘copy and paste’ plagiarism in the UAE.

He said UAE students have similar attitudes to cheating as students around the world, with the exception that they often believe they deserve higher grades.

Moreover, he said if students find the assignment too hard, they feel justified in cheating.

With regard to using essay writers in cases where English-language skills are weak, McCabe said permission should be sought from lecturers beforehand.

“I do not think that receiving assistance can be justified,” he said. “Some students claim they have written their own essay but have simply hired someone to put their thoughts into clearer English.  However, I would argue this should be done only after consulting the instructor and getting permission to do it.”

martin@khaleejtimes.com