Investigating the Dimensions of Academic Corruption in Higher Education: A Mixed Study

The purpose of study is survey to identify the dimensions and components of academic corruption in Iranian higher education. The research approach is heuristic mixed method. In the qualitative part, the Grounded Theory(GT) method was used. The participants in this section consisted of 20 professors of higher education in Tehran, Allameh Tabataba'i, Amirkabir University of Technology, Kurdistan and Semnan Universities of which selected through theoretical sampling method and data were collected using the Semi-structured interviews. Data were analyzed using open, axial and selective coding methods using MAXQDA qualitative analysis software. The results show that the concepts and categories related to the conceptual dimensions of academic corruption are structural, non-structural, and scientific. Also, the main categories of academic corruption were drawn in terms of causal, contextual, and confounding conditions, and finally, the resulting outcomes. The quantitative part was done by descriptive method and using survey. In the quantitative part, after designing the questionnaire tool based on the findings of the first part, data were tested for normality and confirmatory factor analysis was used for validity of the questionnaire, which was done for the concept of corruption; factors affecting academic corruption and its consequences. Then, using the Chi-square method and Friedman analysis, the dimensions, factors, and consequences of academic corruption were examined. The results show that in the structural-administrative dimension, the most important factor is the quantitative development of higher education with a mean (4.0489), and in the non-structural dimension, literacy with a mean (4.0326) is the most important; Is the least common of these species. Also among the causal factors are the mechanisms of production of science with a mean (15.7011); in the underlying factors, the mass higher education and the Credentialism with a mean (15.7880); Average (11.6739) is the most important.