Abstract:
Many students study overseas which has educational, cultural/social, and economic implications for host countries and those international students. It has been reported that medical and health sciences educational experiences are beginning to develop at a transnational level whereby curricula are shared among educational centres across different countries, which extends the notion of unidirectional internationalization. Quality assurance is required to ensure global standards regarding professional and academic conduct are maintained. This study investigates the development of a questionnaire that measures students’ academic integrity in medical and health sciences learning environments. Eight hundred and forty-four medical and health science students from New Zealand and Nigeria completed a newly formed 26-item questionnaire measuring aspects of academic integrity. The responses were primarily analysed using exploratory factor analysis. The exploratory factor analysis suggested three meaningful factors accounting for 34.29 % of the variance that related to specific areas of academic dishonesty. These factors were termed: (1) copying and collusion; (2) cheating; and (3) complying. This study shows that a questionnaire measuring aspects of academic integrity can have cultural meaning to students studying in two diverse nation states. This study is meant as a developmental process whereby further data collection and analyses are required in other nation states. These extensions can be conducted specifically as in the case of medical and health sciences or more broadly taking into account other professional disciplines. It is envisaged that this process would be ongoing and one that will require many iterations.