ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Assessment, Testing and Applied Measurement
Management of Academic Dishonesty among Students in Nigerian Higher Institutions: An intervention study of cognitive behaviour therapy
Provisionally accepted
Frerdrick Chinedu Onah1Celestine Okwudili Eze1Tobias Chibuike Onah1Uchenna Virginus Eze1Felicia Onyebuchi Ezeugwu1Rosemary Ngozi Okolo1Fabian Ugochukwu Nnadi1Joy Onyinyechi1Samson Obialor Onu1Emelda Chinasa Nnanyelugo1Japel Onyekachi Asogwa1Adaora Unoma Echezona1Justina Ngozi1Stella Chinweudo Ekwueme1Emeka Simon Ejim1Felicia Nnenna Opara1Onisoman Chuks Zudonu1Felicia Ugwu1Bianca Mbonu-Adigwe1Owolawi Olaniyi1
Slungile Thwala2*
Christian Ugwuanyi1- 1University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria
- 2University of Eswatini, Kwaluseni, Eswatini
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The researchers' extensive expertise in the university system has revealed that postgraduate students at Nigerian universities engage in many sorts of academic misconduct. This has become a stumbling block in the university's efforts to attain outstanding educational goals. According to the available literature, no study in Nigeria has examined the efficacy of cognitive behaviour therapy on postgraduate students' academic misconduct. As a result, this study is necessary to investigate the effect of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) in preventing academic misconduct among postgraduate students in federal higher institutions in Southeast Nigeria. The study used a stratified random sampling technique to select 145 postgraduate students from several South East universities' faculties of education and vocational technical education. Data for this study was collected using an adapted academic dishonesty scale (α =.79). The intervention program lasted 10 weeks, with a two-month follow-up measure added for a total of 18 weeks. The data collected at the pretest, posttest, and follow-up were examined using repeated measures analysis of covariance (r-ANCOVA). The findings demonstrated that CBT significantly reduced academic dishonesty among postgraduate students at the posttest, and that this reduction continued at the two-month follow-up. Thus, the usage of CBT serves to discourage postgraduate students from engaging in academic dishonesty. In other words, it was concluded that CBT intervention is an effective tool for reducing academic dishonesty among postgraduate students. The researchers consequently urge that postgraduate students in southeast universities be exposed to the CBT intervention.
Keywords: Academic dishonesty, cognitive behavior therapy, experimental design, Rational emotive behaviour therapy, university students
Received: 27 May 2025; Accepted: 06 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Onah, Eze, Onah, Virginus Eze, Ezeugwu, Okolo, Nnadi, Onyinyechi, Onu, Nnanyelugo, Asogwa, Echezona, Ngozi, Ekwueme, Ejim, Opara, Zudonu, Ugwu, Mbonu-Adigwe, Olaniyi, Thwala and Ugwuanyi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Slungile Thwala
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