According to a recent report, cheating among college and university students is on the rise. However, Groveton College has successfully reduced student cheating by adopting an honor code, which calls for students to agree not to cheat in their academic en

The writer believes that the adoption of a new honor code - in which students agree not to cheat and to report any cheating to faculty members - at Groveton College has successfully reduced student cheating compared to the convention system in which students are only monitored by teachers. The writer thus recommends all colleges and universities to adopt honor codes similar to the ones of Groveton to decrease the cheating among students. While this proposal may seem plausible, there are a few questions that require answering before one can evaluate this proposal.

First of all, the very basis of the new honor code seem to be built on a baseless foundation. Claiming that the levels of cheating has actually declined is assuming that students are abiding to this honor code perfectly and it has reduced any potential cheating. However, this is built on the assumption that students believe they are just as likely to catch cheaters as teachers; even if this is the case, there is no question that the likability of a student reporting a case of cheating is inherently different to the chances of a teacher reporting a case of cheating. Students and teachers have been traditionally on opposite ends of the educational divide, one is the educator and one is the knowledge receiver. Teachers thus feel obliged to report any misdoings hoping the student would change for the better. However, this is not the case between individual students. Viewing from this educational divide, students are of the same entity and are therefore not responsible for each others’ learning. Many students thus will not feel obligated to report any misconduct. Furthermore, students often succumb to peer pressure or the fear of inimical relationships so they may often choose to overlook any cheating. So this so claimed decline in the frequency of cheating may simply be due to the fact that many of the cheating conducted after the adoption of the honor code simply went overlooked.

Building upon the previous argument, even if it is indeed true that the honor code has reduced the levels of cheating at Groveton, there is no guarantee this trend can be predicted in any other university or college if they do adopt the code. Groveton may be a university filled with self-disciplined or highly competitive students who are eager to find and correct faults of their fellow classmates, which is why the honor code was a success. It is unlikely that this trend can be replicated in less academically focused schools with students whose sole goal in college may be to get any degree simply as a prerequisite for work. For schools to accept this recommendation, they will have to survey and compare the statistics between them and Groveton: Are the students of similar socio-economical backgrounds? Are the degrees and subjects offered similar? Before these questions can be answered, its unlikely that the said results of cheating reduction can be accomplished.

Finally, it is claimed that the recently conducted survey showed that students were less inclined to cheat after the implementation of the code. However, we are not given any further background detail of the survey, such as who conducted it? Who was it directed towards? The conductors of the survey may very well be the people who forwarded this new code, so they may ask lead-in questions in order to get results that they desire.

To sum up, while it may seem that the levels of cheating have declined in Groveton, there is no way to know this is true, it may simply be a false positive because of students reluctance to report misconduct. There is also no guarantee that these results can be expected in all colleges and universities given the vast differences between individuals in different univerisites. These questions will have to be answered before further evaluation of the claim.