A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Education in partial fulfillment of the Requirements for a Master of Educational Psychology in the department of Educational Psychology and special in the Faculty of of Education at the University of Zululand, 2018. / This is a qualitative study aimed at exploring the factors influencing students to engage on risks of academic cheating and plagiarism at the University of Zululand The specific objectives of the study are: To establish the factors influencing students to take risks on academic cheating during examinations and plagiarism. To explore the extent of the awareness on the consequences of engaging in risky behaviors with regards to plagiarism and academic cheating.

No description available.

This is a qualitative study that has reviewed decision reports on academic cheating with content analysis as a method, aimed to investigate the actions that has led to disciplinary action and illustrate how students motivate their actions. The result shows that plagiarism is the main act that has led to disciplinary action. In the cheating plagiarism, the approach varies from the fact that the plagiarized texts may originate from students from other universities, classmates or it may be the result of collaboration between students. In the other cheating form unauthorised aids, the procedure is similar to the approach in terms of students bringing unauthorised aids on the examination. What varies is what kind of assistant students bring such as mobile phones, notes or writing sheets. The study can determine that student motivations for their actions may vary but include causes such as mistakes, pressed study situations and lack of resources, lack of time and stress, lack of knowledge and misinterpretations of the university rules.