(U-WIRE) IOWA CITY, Iowa – At the end of the semester, when final projects, papers and exams seemingly take over students’ lives, the phrase “the pressure is on” is an understatement.

And while many students stick to working hard and earning their grades fairly, a percentage of university students succumb to cheating, according to recent studies.

“Cheating is the last resort of those under pressure,” said Lyombe Eko, a University of Iowa associate professor of journalism.

“Students are forced to choose between being a good person and getting good grades; usually, being a good person is sacrificed because we live in a society where it is hard to quantify character.”

The national spotlight has repeatedly fallen on the issue of academic misconduct in recent months. On Dec. 1, some students at the journalism school at Columbia University were accused of cheating on their ethics exam. And last September, reports surfaced that 56 percent of graduate business students admitted to cheating in 2005.

UI psychology Associate Professor Shaun Vecera said social pressures to conform to certain norms could induce entire classes to cheat.

The reason behind the rise in cheating is not completely clear. The Journal of Higher Education reported that many students do not know what constitutes cheating, and faculty members often do nothing to prevent the act, the journal reported in its November/December issue.

Also, students who cheat in high school are more likely to continue those habits in college, experts say. A study from the Josephson Institute of Ethics last month found that 60 percent of high-school students surveyed have cheated.

“These are the kids that are going to college,” said Rich Jarc, the executive director of the youth survey. “And the new study is very consistent with the study conducted two years ago. It’s safe to say that this behavior continues into college.”

The study also found that of the 36,000 high school students surveyed, 92 percent said they are “satisfied with their own ethics and behavior.”

High school students aren’t the only ones oblivious as to what is right and wrong. A Rowan University study reported that only 27 percent of college students believed “copying and pasting outside work” was serious cheating.

Cheating prevention has become an additional concern for professors.

“My basic strategy is to try to design writing assignments that are so specific that it is difficult to cheat,” said Grant McCall, a UI visiting assistant professor of anthropology, who teaches a large lecture.

Other faculty members ensure students are being watched closely while taking exams.