UNETHICAL BEHAVIOURS AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN EDO STATE

The study examined the prevalence and causes of unethical behaviours among university students in Edo State. Four research questions guided the study. The population of the study comprised all the 39,243 full-time undergraduate students from the 14 faculties that make up the University of Benin. A sample size of 300 undergraduates took part in the study. The instrument used for the study was a structured questionnaire designed by the researchers titled: Prevalence and Causes of Unethical Behaviours Questionnaire (PCUBQ). The instrument was validated by three experts from Faculty of Education, University of Benin. The reliability of the instrument was established through a Cronbach’s Alpha statistics. Thus, Cronbach’s Alpha value of .77 was obtained as the reliability value of the instrument. The findings revealed among others that students are not always punctual and regular at their lectures and high cost of education and poor academic performance were identified as a very high cause of unethical behaviour among university students in Edo State It was concluded that there was high prevalent rate of unethical behaviours among university students in Edo State. It was therefore recommended among others that, university students should be punctual and regular at their lectures as these will enhanced their performance cumulatively. For this purpose, strict adherence to no 75% attendance for students to take examinations should be implemented by the university.