50% of college students admit to cheating. Their excuse: they don't have 'time to study'. What are they 'busy' doing?

That really depends on one's major. Cheating will always be a problem, but the cheaters will also reap what they sow, when in the long run they can't do what they have a degree in. The sad thing is that it cheapens everyone else's degree who did not cheat. In my major, those that were inclined to cheat didn't survive long, because too much of the work in engineering couldn't be cheated. So maybe the non-technical majors need to be more creative with their methods, so that cheating is less possible. I took some anthropological courses and was amazed by those whose major this was. They couldn't pass a course that was just memorization. And this was all 25 years ago and nothing has changed. I know in my case I went to school full time for Aerospace Engineering, commuted to school 1 ht each way, and worked full time. I graduated and kept a 3.0+. I'm not the smartest person by any means, so if I can do it so can many others. I think paying for your education makes you want it & work for it much more.

They are probably doing evrything except for studies.

They party too much

I just love how all the blame is placed on the students and not the university faculty and staff. I also don't care if students cheat on exams. Its their decision, not mine.

I'll answer your question as simple as I can.

There is no time to devout to long study sessions in today's 'education' climate. Students are encouraged to take up to 4-6 classes a semester. These 4-6 classes require reading and taking notes on long boring textbooks (which contain chapters that are up to 30-50 pages for EACH class. Sometimes with multiple books per class), homework that can take up to several hours to complete, and studying (memorizing material) for exams. Some students skim through chapters instead of reading them.

Students also have to go to class where professors don't 'teach' or engage students' minds about the brilliance of their subject. Instead, they lecture straight out of the textbook and use lecture slides straight out of the textbook company's website. Where is the essence of true education in this process?

No one class is created equal. Some classes require more time than other classes, which means students have to pay attention to the class that requires more work and cram for the rest. That's where the cheating comes in.

Out of studying endlessly, students also have to, you know, cook and eat, go shopping for food and other necessities, and hopefully have somewhat of a social life (to ease the endless cycle of becoming a drone for the benefit of the entire university staff), and sleep. Since tuition and books are mighty expensive (thanks government, university athletics, and unions), and not all students are blessed with financial aid, bank loans, government grants, and their parents back account, students need to get a full-time job to pay for tuition.

So you take full-time students who are also full-time employees, stack them with work responsibilities, university course loads, and other events that occur in the real world, sooner or later those students will run out of time and will resort to cheating on exams.

Those 50% are also not blessed with the ideal academic brain (those who can read a textbook chapter, listen to some professor lecture out of the textbook, and automatically understand everything there is to know about the subject and get an A+ on the exams and the entire course).

So the answer to your question is simple. The reason why 50% of students don't have time to study and end up cheating is because they're too busy dealing with real life, and/or require other methods of learning and studying (which is the job of the professor and department to provide).

They're busy texting in class. Also, my experience has been that it's the children of the more privileged families who have a stronger sense of entitlement to a good grade, no matter how they perform. After all, poor grades are meant only for those less privileged, right? (Not to mention the fact that the students from more privileged backgrounds know how to play the system to get the grades they seek. Let's face it, does anyone REALLY think that George W. would have even graduated from college without extensive tutoring, possibility of others writing his papers, and the fact that his daddy was the ex-CIA director? Yeah, right. Everyone has kept carefully silent about his class performance except for one professor, who no longer lives in the US.)

Working, taking care of kids, cooking, cleaning.......

I went to a private university and they are very similar to state funded colleges as far as the partying. That is the main reason I didn't pledge, even though, most of my pals were in sororities! I didn't see the novelty in pantie raids or gettin' wasted!

I think the idea of grades is a silly system anyways. Either you know the material or you don't. The only way to know the material is to study it. Drop the standardized bubble sheet tests for grades and replace it with a combination of a multi-part test unique to the department and final papers or actual application of knowledge. Not to get an A or a B or even a C, not to get a grade at all, but to get a certification proving you actually know the material.

When I was in University, I felt grades were needless and got in the way of actual learning for a lot of students, and also gave false hope for student knowledge to teachers and parents (many students would swipe an A or a B like you say, but even if they didn't cheat, ask them 2 weeks later about the subject and they won't know anything. So really, the entire point of the class was worthless beyond getting another grade to put on the transcript to show off).