Thirty-four Fuqua School of Business students are accused of violating the school's honor code by cheating on an examFrom the moment they set foot on campus, graduate business-school students are inundated with handbooks on business ethics, classes on the subject, and at many campuses, copies of a school honor code. At Duke University's Fuqua School of Business the preamble of the honor code is displayed prominently in each classroom and students must read and sign a copy of it before they even apply to the school.
But on Apr. 27, school officials said that Duke is taking disciplinary action against 34 of the school's first-year MBA students—almost 10% of the school's 2008 class—for allegedly cheating on an open-book, take-home final in one of the school's required core classes. It is the largest episode of cheating in the school's history, officials said. "There is a great deal of concern. The honor code is a cornerstone for the culture that we have here, and we take a violation of it quite seriously," said Mike Hemmerich, Fuqua's associate dean for marketing and communications.
The incident has stunned the business-school community, affirming fears that cheating might be making a comeback at MBA programs. The scandal comes at a time when many business schools are taking a closer look at their honor codes and implementing new measures such as student-run courts meant to discourage students from deceiving the school's faculty.
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