Introduction One of the pressing issues faced by universities today is "academic cheating, " which has been causing significant and irreparable harm to the academic community due to its pervasive nature. Studies indicate that cheating shares similarities with other forms of deviant behavior and individuals, who engage in cheating, are more likely to repeat such an action and do it so more frequently. The rational choice theory of criminology provides insight into deviant behavior, suggesting that individuals act based on their personal assessments of the expected benefits, which are influenced by the anticipated costs and motivations associated with the behavior in question. This theory underscores the significance of the perceived benefits of academic cheating, such as avoiding exertion, attaining higher grades, experiencing reduced stress, and saving time, while weighing them against potential costs, such as the risk of being deprived of the necessary education for future success. Furthermore, the deterrence theory offers valuable insights, positing that individuals' awareness of the certainty, severity, and swiftness of punishment diminishes the likelihood of engaging in deviant behavior. Therefore, if students do not perceive the clear and consistent enforcement of penalties for cheating as outlined in university regulations, the likelihood of cheating will increase. This research aimed to sociologically investigate and elucidate the phenomenon of academic cheating among Mazandaran University students through the lenses of rational choice and deterrence theories.

Objectives: The current study has conducted to evaluate correlation between masters 'of universities professional competence and cultural engineering from the perspective of Tehran welfare and rehabilitation science university PHD students and Kermanshah Azad University.Method: The population contains all PHD students of Kermanshah Azad University and Tehran welfare and rehabilitation Science University in 2016 academic-year and they were 750 subjects. The number of 157 students of Azad university of Kermanshah and 97 students of Tehran welfare and Rehabilitation University were selected by multi- stage random sampling. Research tool are masters' professional competence questionnaire and cultural engineering questionnaire. In the current study the Cron Bach's alpha coefficient of masters' professional competence questionnaire was calculated 0.96 and cultural engineering questionnaire was obtained 0.79. To compare the existing and desired situation dependent T- test and to evaluate correlation between professional competence and cultural engineering, Pearson correlation coefficient was used.Results: The finding showed that masters' professional competence evaluates slightly above average, but there is a gap between its existing and desired situation (p<0.05). There is also a significant correlation between masters' professional competence and cultural engineering.Conclusion: The author of the research concludes that having the knowledge and required skills to perform tasks efficiently and effectively lead to a sense of self-esteem and a sense of competence in professors and concludes in cultural engineering in them.

Background Academic cheating is one of the current and increasing problems in educational systems and irreversible harm to the academic community. The aim of this study was identify the reasons for student's academic cheating and categorize their responses upon neutralization strategies. Method Phenomenological qualitative approach was used. The study population includes all students of Birjand University consists of 11225 persons. 20 students of Birjand University were selected using purposive sampling. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and by Corbin and Strauss color coding was analyzed. Results 893 codes in the interview in seven main issues were classified: "student، social norms، professor، the University، the nature and degree courses، nature of the task and the level of education". Students، at the first، have stated their role in the perpetration of cheating، they then have employed respectively neutralization techniques? condemnation of the condemners، denial of responsibility، denial of the victim، appeal to higher loyalties and denial of injury? . Conclusion Many types of cheating are avoidable with laws and educational management and scientific ethics in higher education will be enhanced. Higher education policy makers should take the necessary steps to train professional ethics to students during education. Professors can also be effective in reducing cheating by focusing on the development of professional skills، supportive and respectful interaction with students and continuous evaluation.

Objectives: The main theme of the article is a comparison of moral intelligence and its components of cheating in the cheater and noncheater students of the Urmia University.Methods: The present research method is the description of the causal-comparative one. The population of this research study includes all cheating students who had disciplinary penalty by the disciplinary committee in the period of 1392 to 1395 and had received the sentence. To achieve the ideal conclusion, 20 cheating and 20 non-cheaters students were selected by simple random sampling. Len nick & Kiel moral intellectual questionnaire was used to collect information.Results: The results showed that moral intelligence, integrity components, responsibility and forgiveness of cheating students were less than non- cheaters.Conclusion: The author of the survey concluded that the ethical belief development can strengthen macro policies in the academic structure and prevent the spread of cheating.

Background: Cheating is an unethical common phenomenon in the educational systems and is increasingly facilitated with the development of new technologies. Cheating in educational situations is done in two types: on exams and/or on assignments. In this study, the extent and prevalence of academic cheating among male and female students at Birjand University have been investigated.Methods: The research method was descriptive - comparative and research population was all the students of Birjand University. Four-hundred male and female students were selected randomly by cluster sampling method from 4 faculties and 30 academic departments. The research tool was a questionnaire which measured attitude and amount of cheating among students.Results: The results showed that the amount of cheating in exams was less than average, but the belief on cheating as a common phenomenon was more than average. The amount of cheating in boys was significantly higher than girls, and the belief on cheating as a common phenomenon was statistically higher in girls in comparison to boys. The most common ways for cheating in the exam sessions were larcenous looking to other students' sheets and using illegal papers, and the most common ways for cheating in paperwork, were using other students' papers and taking paper from internet. From students' view, the external factors were more emphasized than internal factors as the cause for cheating.Conclusions: Many types of cheating can be prevented with proper legislation, educational and management system. Preventing cheating or reducing it will strengthen the spirit of scientific ethics in higher education systems. Considering the expansion of information technology in the educational systems, ways to detect and reduce electronic cheating must now be regarded by researchers.

Background Academic cheating is one of the prevalent unmoral phenomena in educational systems that has been facilitated and spread increasingly with the development of technology. In this study, the effect of achievement goal orientations on academic cheating is investigated through the mediation of academic moral disengagement. Method The present study is descriptive-correlation. The statistical population includes all students of Shahid Beheshti University in the second semester of 2016-2017. A total of 200 masters and Ph. D students were selected by convenience sampling. The measures used in this research are: Achievement Goal Questionnaire-Revised, Academic Moral Disengagement Scale and Cheating Behavior Scale. Data analysis was performed by the Structural Equation Modeling through software’s SPSS and AMOS. Results Results showed a negative significant relationship between mastery (approach and avoidance) goals and academic moral disengagement. Also, the relationship between mastery (approach and avoidance) goals and academic cheating was negative and insignificant. In addition, the relationship between performance (approach and avoidance) goals and academic moral disengagement was positive and significant. Also, the relationship between performance (approach and avoidance) goals and academic cheating was positive and insignificant. Conclusion It seems that educational interventions for increasing academic moral engagement are effective in reducing of academic cheating. These findings provide valuable information for educators want to reduce cheating in scientific environments, and provide important implications for moral education of students.

This study aimed to provide a causal model of academic engagement and academic ethics with academic cheating by the mediating role of academic self-efficacy. It is descriptive and correlational. The population included all female students in senior high schools in Khorramabad amounting to 9981 among whom through the Kline's Rules of Thumb, 240 participants were selected through stratified random sampling. To collect the data, academic engagement, academic ethics questionnaire, academic self-efficacy and academic cheating were used. The correlation matrix, structural equation modeling and goodness of fit index in LISREL 8. 5 were used for data analysis. The results of path analysis showed that academic ethics had direct impact on academic cheating with self-efficacy as mediating variable but academic engagement had no direct effect on academic cheating but was mediated by self-efficacy indirectly. Also, academic self-efficacy had direct effect on academic cheating. The results of the direct effect of academic ethics on academic cheating and the mediating role of self-efficacy in structural relationship between academic engagement and academic provides support for ethics with students' academic cheating.

The Purpose of this study is to test the Akers’ social learning theory in explaining academic cheating among university students. Since academic cheating has not been investigated experimentally by this theory in Iranian studies; a structural model was developed based on Akers’ social learning theory in order to show the relationship between latent variables. Survey was applied as the method of this study and a questionnaire was used for gathering data. The study population was composed of male and female students at Hormozgan University in academic year 2013-14. The sample size was 410 people. Proportionate stratified random sampling method was used to distribute questionnaires. Descriptive analysis of the dependent variable showed that the prevalence of academic cheating among students is 97.4 %. So that only 2.6% stated that they never cheated so far. Based on the analysis of the structural model, the fitness of the observed data with the theoretical model was confirmed. The variables of differential association, definitions, reaction and reward had a statistically significant impact on academic cheating; while factors of praise, deterrence and imitation had no statistically significant effect. Finally, the results showed that social learning theory is able to explain academic cheating.