Keyword: market logic

ABSTRACT: Research on academic dishonesty has predominantly framed misconduct as individual deviation or institutional governance failure. Less attention has been given to how knowledge itself is reorganised within digitally mediated and performance-driven university systems. This article addresses that gap by examining academic dishonesty in Vietnamese higher education as a configuration of knowledge circulation rather than solely as rule violation. The study draws on survey data from 500 undergraduate students across five universities in Hanoi and 20 semi-structured interviews with lecturers and academic administrators. Quantitative analysis maps the distribution of dishonest practices across institutional and disciplinary contexts, while qualitative accounts trace how these practices are rationalised and stabilised within routine academic exchanges. Findings indicate that misconduct concentrates in low-visibility coursework and collaborative settings where grade pressure, relational obligation, and infrastructural accessibility intersect. Rather than conforming to a single ethical model, academic dishonesty emerges through overlapping regimes of valuation in which knowledge is alternately commodified, reciprocated, and institutionally regulated. The analysis reframes academic dishonesty as a patterned reorganisation of knowledge legitimacy under contemporary educational conditions, contributing a structural account that complements existing individual- and governance-centred explanations.