Mitigating student related academic corruption in Sub-Sahara Africa

Abstract

Empirical scholarly work on student related academic corruption in higher education in
sub-Sahara Africa is scanty. This study contributes to filling the gap. An anonymous selfadministered
online questionnaire was used and emails sent to students from the database
of the All-Africa Students Union, University of Burundi Doctoral School and 2nd Year
Banking and Finance students of the University of Professional Studies Accra. Researcher
observations was also employed to corroborate participant responses. With a sample of
n=164, percentages and graphs were generated for analysis. Anchored on the Bad Apple
Theory, the research suggests that, the most prevalent form of student related academic
corruption is plagiarism (75.6%) with the least being ‘falsification of entry results’
(45.1%). The originality value of this research is hinged on the empirical findings on the
phenomena from respondents’ direct experiences, and media reports of specific instances
of the phenomena. We recommend appropriate measures to curb the menace.