In today’s educational landscape, a troubling trend has emerged: many young people openly admit to cheating. This phenomenon raises significant concerns on multiple fronts. It indicates that many students view education primarily as a means to obtain credentials rather than to acquire genuine skills. This shift cultivates an environment where those who refrain from academic dishonesty find themselves at a competitive disadvantage. Furthermore, it reflects a broader decline in ethical standards. It’s no surprise that the United States has seen a decline in its corruption perception rankings, a trend that appears justifiably alarming.
By Austin Sarat, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science, Amherst College. Originally published at The Conversation
Recently, my colleagues and I engaged a group of talented students who had just finished their first year of college about the use of artificial intelligence as a research aid.
Out of the blue, I posed a seemingly unrelated question: “How many of you cheated in high school?”
To my surprise, a majority raised their hands. They appeared unfazed, perhaps relieved to know they weren’t alone in their admissions.
This was not my first inquiry of this nature, nor was it my first encounter with similar results.
By the time students transition to college, many have already been exposed to cheating and perceive it as justifiable due to pressures to excel.
It is essential to understand that AI is not the root of the problem of academic dishonesty among today’s students.
This issue has deep roots that precede the advent of AI.
The Cheating Pipeline
While many college students are honest and diligent, some have become accustomed to academic dishonesty in American high schools by the time they arrive in college.
As educational psychologist Eric Anderman noted in 2018: “Academic cheating is widespread in American high schools. A large national study revealed that 51% of high school students acknowledge cheating on tests.”
Further research conducted in 2020 indicated that 64% of 70,000 high school students across the country admitted to engaging in cheating during tests, and 58% confessed to plagiarism. Moreover, around 95% of students reported having “participated in some form of cheating, including on tests, plagiarizing, or copying homework.”
In one Pennsylvania high school, a survey showed that 90 out of 100 respondents “acknowledged they had cheated on some form of schoolwork at least once.”
One respondent succinctly stated: “Everybody cheats.”
Students may cheat for various reasons.
They might feel unprepared for an exam or paper but still aspire for good grades and entry into a competitive college.
While they may acknowledge that cheating is unethical, they justify their actions by citing the prevalence of cheating among peers or the incompetence of their teachers. Others might lack a clear understanding of what constitutes cheating in different contexts or believe that their actions do not qualify as cheating.
This mindset can lead some students who cheat to avoid self-identifying as cheaters.
Sociologists Gresham Sykes and David Matza refer to this phenomenon as “techniques of neutralization,” where individuals rationalize their unethical behavior using their internalized worldview.
Looking the Other Way
A 2020 study involving 840 undergraduate students discovered that 32% admitted to cheating on exams.
As college professors, we may be tempted to turn a blind eye to suspected cheating or attempt to mitigate the issue by altering our evaluation methods.
For instance, a report by The Wall Street Journal in 2025 indicated that faculty across the U.S. were abandoning written assignments, which students could easily generate using AI, and reverting to traditional in-class exams.
Every college and university has established policies to combat plagiarism and various forms of academic dishonesty.
To illustrate, Harvard’s policy states that “Cheating on tests, plagiarism, misrepresenting the ideas of others as your own, fabricating data, or any other instance of academic dishonesty violates the standards of our community and the broader world of education.”
Students found violating these standards at Harvard and similar institutions face repercussions ranging from failing grades to expulsion. Yet many educators choose not to report cheating incidents to those responsible for enforcing such policies.
Few colleges have implemented a comprehensive integrity curriculum that addresses cheating as a behavioral pattern, seeking to counteract it over the course of a student’s four years of education.
Like any detrimental habit, students can gradually be guided away from cheating, but this requires robust support programs and clear, stringent consequences for those caught infringing on academic integrity.
Cheating in College
Assessing the scale of academic dishonesty on college campuses is straightforward.
In February 2026, for example, a Harvard undergraduate named Matthew Tobin wrote an opinion piece in the Harvard Crimson titled “Plagiarize or Perish.”
In it, he referenced a 2024 Harvard Crimson study indicating that 47% of 850 surveyed seniors admitted to cheating.
Tobin argued that while some attribute cheating to the “scholarly disengagement of modern students” or the use of AI, deeper issues have existed for much longer. He noted that plagiarism and academic misconduct at Harvard predate these contemporary concerns.
Reported academic misconduct cases surged at Ohio State University by 57% between 2014 and 2018. This figure likely underrepresents the true extent, as numerous incidents go unreported or uninvestigated.
Oberlin student Charlie McLaughlin issued an op-ed in May 2026 in the college newspaper, criticizing a decision to revise the honor code to permit professors to supervise tests.
“This policy change signals a lack of trust in students to develop integrity,” wrote McLaughlin. “That’s disheartening. Perhaps it’s also justified. But that makes it even more disheartening.”
Princeton University recently reversed its 133-year-old ban on exam proctoring due to rising concerns about academic integrity violations, particularly regarding the increased use of AI.
A Teacher’s Dilemma
I do not view my students as cheaters, nor do I wish to adopt a suspicious mindset that turns education into an act of surveillance. Nevertheless, it is imperative for both my role and the institution I represent to recognize that our students genuinely require assistance in cultivating sound academic practices.
If colleges fail to confront these realities, it will be challenging to diminish the prevalence of cheating.
Faculty should begin integrating discussions about intellectual integrity into their courses, encouraging students to reflect on the individuals they aspire to be and whether they wish to navigate life by circumventing ethical standards. Only then can institutions hope to foster what Tobin described as “a commitment to academic integrity in (our) students.”
