Fig. 2

Students’ self-reported understanding and perceived effectiveness of institutional regulations on academically dishonest behaviour, compared with lecturers’ understanding (as perceived by students). Unpaired two-tailed Mann–Whitney U-test *p < 0.05, ***p < 0.001,****p < 0.0001, ns not significant at p < 0.05. Students believed that their lecturers significantly better understanding of the regulations. No significant difference was found between the mean perceived effectiveness of the regulations and the mean severity of penalties for offending students. Students rated the perceived effectiveness of the regulations significantly higher than both students’ understanding and the perceived understanding by their lecturers