The ineffective implementation of the honor code at University of Prishtina, has proved to be one of the most influential factors in the increment of cheating and plagiarism among kosovar students. The honor code system contains a set of rules or principles which should be strictly followed by students in an academic institution. The honor code creates clear definitions of cheating and plagiarism and about the consequences that students have to face if they are caught engaging in these forms of academic dishonesty (Jordan, 2001).
According to a research made by McCabe and Travino, students who study at universities with honor codes cheat less or engage less in any form of academic dishonesty, than the students who study in an environment where there is not an honor code. However, a further research of them suggested that even though some universities have an honor code, academic dishonesty is more present in these universities than in universities that does not have it. This happens because those universities even though have a formal honor code, they do not implement it effectively (McCabe & Travino, 1993). This is exactly the case with University of Prishtina, it does have a formal honor code, but unfortunately it is not implemented effectively.
University of Prishtina has failed to convey its beliefs about the consequences of cheating or plagiarism and about the punishments that students have to face if they are caught engaging in these forms of academic dishonesty. This non-effective implement of the honor code has influenced the increment of academic dishonesty among Kosovar students, since they were not informed from their first year about the regulations and sanctions of university and with what they will have to face with if they are caught cheating or plagiarizing.
As a result, students have continued to cheat, being certain that no one is going to report and punish them for doing that. McCabe and Travino indicated that the effective implementation of the honor code also increases the willingness of faculty members to report any violation of the honor code. Thus, if the honor code had been effectively implemented in the University of Prishtina, the faculty members would strictly act according the regulations of the honor code, they would report any case of cheating or plagiarism among students, but since this does not happen students have continued to cheat and plagiarize, since they are certain that no one bothers to report or punish them for doing that.
Broeckelman- Post (2008) suggested that the employment of safeguards at faculties can reduce cheating or plagiarism among students by discussing about this issue and the consequences of engaging in any form of academic dishonesty. The lack of the safeguards, the ones who are responsible to give lectures to students about academic dishonesty, is another factor which has contributed to the increment of cheating and plagiarism among students of the University of Prishtina.
There are a lot of students who are not informed about academic dishonesty and many of them do not even consider cheating as something bad to do, rather, they consider it as a good method to use when they cannot prepare well for the exams or when they have more than one or two exams in one week so they think cheating is a good solution for it. If there were safeguards to advice and teach students about the consequences of any form of academic dishonesty for sure the percentage of cheating and plagiarism among students would decrease.
