An overview of culture and academic integrity: Myth busting the notion that international students are more likely to engage in academic misconduct

Author: Associate Professor Guy Curtis, University of Western Australia

This short overview answers two common questions that people in higher education have about culture and academic integrity. These questions are:

Do international students cheat more than domestic students?
Do different cultures have different perspectives on academic integrity?

Do international students cheat more than domestic students?

No!

Two of the biggest predictors of academic misconduct are students:

lacking the understanding of academic integrity rules
finding the academic expectations to be too difficult.

Common misconceptions

There is a common perception in Australian higher education that international students engage in plagiarism and cheating more than local Australian students. There are some reasons why this perception exists, and not all of them suggest that international students engage in academic misconduct any more than local Australian students.

In the days before generative artificial intelligence (gen AI) and text-matching software, the most common form of academic misconduct was almost certainly plagiarism. When a native English speaker plagiarises, the clearly written text that they copied from a published source may not stand out in their assignment amongst their own native English writing. In contrast, when a non-native speaker includes a section of copied clear prose in the context of writing that has the hallmarks of a less fluent understanding of English, that plagiarised clear prose stands out.

Consequently, plagiarism was more easily detectable in the writing of English as an Additional Language (EAL) international students, which gave the impression that international students plagiarised more than local students. There are still many academics working today who first started their careers marking assignments in the days before text-matching software and artificial intelligence, who carry the impression that international students engage in more misconduct because it used to be easier to spot when international students plagiarised. However, this perception may, at least partly, be an example of implicit bias.

Local students vs international students

In contrast to the expectations that international students engage in more plagiarism than local Australian students, several studies have found no differences in plagiarism rates between local Australian and international students (e.g. Maxwell et al., 2006; 2008). These studies have commented on the fact that many international students come from cultures that value education, where students from these cultures may assuage cheating because it undermines their learning (Chan, 1999). Other research also indicates that within a semester of studying in a different culture, international students have often learned and adapted to local expectations for educational assessment (Biggs & Watkins, 1996; Shafaei et al., 2016; Volet & Renshaw, 1995). Nonetheless, international students continue to be over-represented in academic misconduct cases (Zobel & Hamilton, 2002; Harris, 2025).

Importantly, 2 of the largest and most thorough studies of serious cheating in higher education in Australia, which examined contract cheating, both found higher rates of contract cheating among international students than among local Australian students (Bretag et al., 2019; Curtis et al., 2022). However, the most interesting finding of both studies was that engagement in cheating was predicted more by EAL status than by international student status. What this means is that cheating may be something that students do because studying in their non-native language is hard. Although more international students than Australian students have English as an additional language, educators need to keep in mind that some local students do not have English as their first language and that some international students do have English as a first language.

Confirmation bias

Another reason why people believe that international students cheat more than domestic students is that many of the well-publicised cheating scandals in Australian higher education have involved international students. For example, the MyMaster scandal involved a website specifically marketing contract cheating services to Chinese-speaking students in Australia (Visentin, 2015).

Cultural differences

Not understanding rules may apply more to international students who have come from a context where academic integrity expectations are not the same as those of the Australian institution in which they're studying (Ehrich et al., 2016; Fatemi & Saito, 2020; James et al., 2017). As noted above, they will likely learn local expectations in Australia, but this does not necessarily happen straight away. Not understanding course content may apply to international students who face the added challenge of studying in their non-native language or who were admitted to study in Australia despite not satisfying minimum entry requirements for their course.

In sum, there is some evidence which indicates that international students may sometimes engage in academic misconduct at higher rates than local students. However, there are also some critical lessons and caveats:

All students need to be considered as individuals, just because someone is from a particular culture it is not an indication that they have engaged, or will engage, in academic misconduct. Markers and decision-makers need to be aware of the potential for implicit bias.
Students who are new to Australia need clear guidance on academic integrity expectations in the Australian higher education context.
Students whose first language is not English may need additional help and support to be able to complete assignments with integrity.
Even if, on average, academic misconduct rates are higher among international students, keep in mind that local students can and do also engage in academic misconduct.

Do different countries and cultures have different perspectives on academic integrity?

Yes!

Being aware of the variations in cultural attitudes around academic integrity, and the association between English language proficiency and academic misconduct, can help institutions in developing support and guidance for international students to:

best prepare them for academic study in Australia
understand the rules and expectations around academic integrity.

In the previous section, we noted that international students do tend to adapt to local expectations, and providing specific instruction on academic integrity can help with this adaptation. Nonetheless, there are some potential pre-existing expectations that students from various countries and cultures may have that are not the same as those typically held by Australian students or Australian Higher Education Institutions.

There are many and varied reasons that have been suggested for cross-national differences in academic integrity. Broad cultural dimensions have been suggested as playing a role:

Individualism versus collectivism and the extent to which students seek support, and in the extent to which students believe it is acceptable to work on assessment tasks with others as compared with completing them alone (Kasler et al., 2021; Tremayne & Curtis, 2021; Zhao et al., 2022).
Cultural dimension of power distance as potentially influencing academic integrity culture. For example, Asian and Confucian cultures are thought to be more deferential to expertise or seniority, with expectations that it may be less acceptable to paraphrase the words of an authority (James et al., 2019).
Differences in educational practices, rote learning and rote reproduction are favoured educational methods in some cultures more than others. Rote learning and reproduction of information may be accompanied by a lesser emphasis on plagiarism (Maxwell et al., 2016).

However, cultural dimensions are not the only indicator of student behaviour. Cultural dimensions interact with learning styles and student motivation. For example, research consistently shows lower rates of cheating in students whose goal is to learn as compared with students whose goal is to obtain performance outcomes like a qualification or high marks (Zhoa et al., 2024). This connection between performance orientation and cheating was stronger in cultures that were more individualistic and with lower power distance (i.e. Western cultures).

Similarly, expectations on what constitutes good behaviour or normal behaviour in an academic context differ between countries. A cross-national study of student cheating found the highest rates of cheating occurred in the countries with the highest rates of perceived cheating among peers (Awdry 2021; Awdry & Ives, 2023). Cultural dimensions also interact with perceived norms. For example, although students are generally influenced by the perception of the extent of cheating among their peers, this influence is stronger for students from more collectivistic and high-power distance cultures, for example Asian cultures (Zhoa et al., 2022).

As a consequence of some of these cultural differences, some studies suggest that behaviours and attitudes toward academic integrity vary. Below, some of the broader findings of such research is summarised.

It is important to keep in mind that educational practices and attitudes vary substantially among institutions within countries and change rapidly with changing educational and social practices. Because of this, readers must bear in mind that overgeneralising these culture-based findings to individuals may unfairly stereotype students.

Nonetheless, as mentioned earlier, the association between English language proficiency and academic misconduct means that students coming from any non-English speaking background may need additional support to avoid plagiarism and cheating.

What are some of the common expectations and attitudes to academic integrity in other jurisdictions?

China and other East-Asian countries

Much has been written about Chinese students’ perceptions of academic integrity, attitudes to academic integrity, and cultural-based expectations concerning educational assessments. As a broad generalisation, Chinese students coming to Australia from high school may be less likely to have been exposed to ideas of plagiarism, citation and referencing than local Australian students. Chinese students who have studied at Chinese higher education institutions before coming to Australia may have experienced more permissive attitudes to plagiarism and collusion in their previous studies (Privitera, 2024, Yang et al., 2017). In either case, dedicated and early interventions to raise awareness of local rules and build academic writing skills are recommended.

South-East Asia

As with students from China, students from South-East Asia may on average receive less emphasis in their prior education on academic integrity than Australian students. There are developing networks in ASEAN to promote academic integrity (Roengtam, 2025) and a current initiative by the Malaysian government to reduce corruption, including in education.

India and Pakistan

Research on higher education in India and Pakistan suggest higher rates of exam cheating in India (Monica et al., 2010) and higher levels of plagiarism and cheating in Pakistan (Ghias et al., 2014) as compared with Australia. Some research suggests that such problems are “normalised” within the sub-continent, but caution that there are considerable inter-institutional differences (Ghias et al., 2014; Rehman & Waheed, 2014).

USA, UK, and Canada

Generally, studies show similar rates of academic misconduct among students in the English-speaking Western countries. To be clear, the rates of cheating and plagiarism vary substantially among studies depending on how these are defined and measured. Educational practices and rules differ in these Western English-speaking countries as compared with Australia. In the USA, a more moralistic and character-based perception of academic misconduct is widespread than in Australia, where educative policies and processes are preferred. The USA and Canada lack national-level quality regulators of higher education.

Eastern Europe

Although not a large source of international students to Australia, surveys regularly show higher levels of engagement in academic misconduct in Eastern Europe than in Australia (Awdry & Ives, 2023). Some of these differences have been attributed to external pressures faced by students and student norms that are more permissive of cheating.

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