Abstract

This paper presents the report of a follow-up study conducted to investigate the degree of consistency in staff and students’ Sensitivity (expressions of preference for and willingness to engage in) to each of three approaches to curbing academic dishonesty in the University of Ilorin, Nigeria.  Data for the study were derived from a researcher-designed questionnaire patterned after Hinman’s (2000) ‘Police‘ , ‘virtues‘ and ‘prevention‘ approaches to curbing academic dishonesty which required respondents to preferentially rank (in terms of degree of preference for and then in terms of degree of willingness to engage in) each of the three approaches. Respondents’ preferential rankings of each approach (whether High, Medium or Low) were matched with their indications of willingness to Engage in utilizing the approach (High, Medium or Low) to enable the categorisation of the respondents in relation to  three Sensitivity models of Committed, Cautious and Carefree. The findings of the study, among others, showed both staff and students to be generally  Committed to the ‘Virtues’ approach and  Carefree to the ‘Prevention’ approach; while male staff and students were typically more Committed to the curbing approaches than their female counterparts. They also suggested the need for integration of the ‘Virtues’ approach  for which more  staff and students expressed willingness to engage in into the traditional method of dealing with academic dishonesty in Nigerian  universities.

Key words: Academic dishonesty, curbing approaches, sensitivity models.