Role of ethics in the success of an undergraduate student
ETHICS
Ethics is the moral principles that govern a person’s behavior or the conducting of an activity, as defined in the oxford dictionary. In simpler terms, ethics are a code of conduct established by a human, group, culture etc. An undergraduate student is in the beginning stage of entering the ‘real world’ therefore ethical values place an important role on the overall success of that student.
In a student’s college life he/she will face many situations where he/she will be tested on ethical values. The most common unethical practice done by students is that they cheat in exams; they may do this by gaining illegal access to the questions before the actual exam, use of mobile phones during a written exam etc. Mostly outside pressures lead a student to cheat. Mark Clayton in his book, A whole lot of cheating going on, states “Students say time and workload pressure are major factors spurring academic dishonesty, followed by parental pressure.” Example: In Asian countries such as Sri Lanka, pressure from parents is at an all time high specially when it comes to education. Moreover most undergraduate students are involved in many different activities in addition to studies, these are their social lives, extra curricular activities, he/she may be working part time, just to name a few. Thus the time available to spend on studies is minimized and the student would definitely feel the pressure leading him/her to cheat in the exam for an easy pass. This will eventually become a habit and will affect the person negatively when he/she starts a job, they will keep trying to find quicker and illegal solutions to complete their work which would label them as an unethical person in their field of work. Santa Clara University, in their article ‘Top Ten Ethical Issues for College Freshmen’ gave another reason for students cheating, it is stated “how bad is it to copy the homework for a class you’ll never use in your professional life?” - See more at:
Ethics is the moral principles that govern a person’s behavior or the conducting of an activity, as defined in the oxford dictionary. In simpler terms, ethics are a code of conduct established by a human, group, culture etc. An undergraduate student is in the beginning stage of entering the ‘real world’ therefore ethical values place an important role on the overall success of that student.
In a student’s college life he/she will face many situations where he/she will be tested on ethical values. The most common unethical practice done by students is that they cheat in exams; they may do this by gaining illegal access to the questions before the actual exam, use of mobile phones during a written exam etc. Mostly outside pressures lead a student to cheat. Mark Clayton in his book, A whole lot of cheating going on, states “Students say time and workload pressure are major factors spurring academic dishonesty, followed by parental pressure.” Example: In Asian countries such as Sri Lanka, pressure from parents is at an all time high specially when it comes to education. Moreover most undergraduate students are involved in many different activities in addition to studies, these are their social lives, extra curricular activities, he/she may be working part time, just to name a few. Thus the time available to spend on studies is minimized and the student would definitely feel the pressure leading him/her to cheat in the exam for an easy pass. This will eventually become a habit and will affect the person negatively when he/she starts a job, they will keep trying to find quicker and illegal solutions to complete their work which would label them as an unethical person in their field of work. Santa Clara University, in their article ‘Top Ten Ethical Issues for College Freshmen’ gave another reason for students cheating, it is stated “how bad is it to copy the homework for a class you’ll never use in your professional life?” - See more at: