Ekstrand also said honor code violations were mostly minor and unintentional. For example, some students shared a template in which data from the exam questions were typed into a spreadsheet, but no one shared the analysis or answers, he said.
The fact that the students from countries including China, Korea and Taiwan confessed instead of fighting the charges had to do with cultural norms, Ekstrand says. “Culturally, a confession or an admission of guilt can be a way to apologize.”
Experts say students from other countries often arrive on U.S. campuses with different understandings about the boundaries on collaboration.
Gary Comstock, a philosophy professor and director of research ethics at North Carolina State University, says it’s a huge problem.
“I think the university has a special obligation to those students,” he says.
International students at Fuqua are required to attend a summer institute focused on language and culture, but Comstock says students also sometimes use their international status as an excuse.
“There are two principles at work here. One is fairness. We don’t want to treat them differently. The other is cultural sensitivity and the fact that they’re coming to this country and may not have the kind of training that we give to U.S. students,” Comstock says. “There’s also honesty. Some students aren’t honest when they say, ‘I didn’t know.’”
— Associated Press
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