Causes and context of academic corruption and its consequences

The present research proposed a main question: what are causes and contexts of academic corruption and what are consequences of this corruption for students, professors, higher education structure and, in general, for other institutions and organizations of a society? Grounded Theory was used as research approach. data was collected through deep qualitative interviews with 22 doctoral students, faculty members of economic sciences and human science departments of Shahid Beheshti, Tarbiyat Modares and Mazandaran universities, and policy-makers in the field of science and technology (Academic year 2016 – 17). The sample was selected by theoretical and purposive sampling techniques. Findings indicated that multiplicity of institutions determining academic policy, centralism, importance of quantity rather than quality, escaping the law, higher education commercialization, increased demand for higher education, credentialism were among the main causes of academic corruption. Moreover, other contexts and causes such as gap between university and industry, wrong procedures for formal supervision and degradation of teaching contributed to university corruption. Results demonstrated that such corruption weakens individual and professional ethics, negative economic consequences and lowers total level of social well-being.