B.

Introduction

This study evaluated UPM students cultural values and their overall ethical perception in the classroom. It is significant to the universitys development in three specific ways. Firstly, it provided a clearer understanding of differences in students ethical level across gender and ethnic background. This information will help the university to design appropriate curriculum to improve students ethical level according to their respective groups. Secondly, the information obtained from the study provided a basis to understand the direct influence of academic performance towards ethical level in students. If it is found to be negatively correlated, the university will come out with ways to help improve students academic performance such as extra tutorial sessions, workshops and other academic improvement activities to reduce unethical behavioural tendency caused by pressure to perform. Finally, it helped to identify value orientations that influenced ethical level. This piece of information is useful to determine proper core values to be cultivated in students.

Respondents Profile To understand respondents profile, descriptive analysis on ethnic, age, gender, year of study, academic performance, main medium of teaching, language spoken at home and residential area were performed. The first area of respondents profile, which consist of 183 respondents (see Table 2a), majority of them were Malay (60%), followed by Chinese (30%), Indian and others (10%). Thus, ethnic composition very closely resemble Malaysian ethnic group composition [Malaysian Ethnic Composition; 2010]. Table 2a:
Descriptive Statistics N Ethnic Age Gender Year of study Current CGPA Main medium of teaching Main language spoken at home Area Valid N (listwise) 183 183 183 183 168 182 182 183 166 Minimum 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Maximum 4 7 2 5 7 5 5 2 Mean 1.60 5.16 1.44 2.83 2.45 1.70 1.80 1.48 Std. Deviation 0.83 1.51 0.50 1.06 1.38 0.96 1.07 0.50

The second area of respondents profile is age. The highest percentage of respondents age ranged from 21 24 years old, with the percentage of 19% to 27% of the total respondents tested (see Table 2b). Table 2b:
Age Cumulative Frequency Valid 18 and below 19 20 21 22 23 24 and above Total 2 5 16 46 34 30 50 183 Percent 1 3 9 25 19 16 27 100 Valid Percent 1 3 9 25 19 16 27 100 Percent 1.1 3.8 12.6 37.7 56.3 72.7 100.0

The third area in the respondents profile tested is gender (see Table 2c). According to the data analysis, female respondents are the majority in the study tested. This gender composition very closely resemble the gender composition of UPM students, which have 56% female and 44% male. Table 2c:
Gender Cumulative Frequency Valid Female Male Total 103 80 183 Percent 56 44 100 Valid Percent 56 44 100 Percent 56.3 100.0

The fourth area tested in respondents profile is the year of study. The highest percentage of the interviewed respondents consist of second year undergraduates, with 36% out of the total 183 tested (see Table 2d). the second highest are third year undergraduates which is 27% overall followed by Master degree students at 23% and first year undergraduates at 8%. The lowest number of respondents tested are doctorate students, which is only 6% out of total respondents. Table 2d:
Year of study Cumulative Frequency Valid First year (undergraduate) Second year (undergraduate) Third year and above (undergraduate) Master PhD Total 15 65 Percent 8 36 Valid Percent 8 36 Percent 8.2 43.7

50 42 11 183

27 23 6 100

27 23 6 100

71.0 94.0 100.0

The fifth area tested in descriptive analysis of the respondents profile is the academic performance. This is tested through obtaining the respondents CGPA in their various fields of study (see Table 2e). According to the results, the highest percentage of respondents tested have a grade point average of 3.75 and above, at 36% out of the overall number of respondents. This is followed by students with the grade point average of 3.50 to 3.74 at 17%, and the rest are 3.49 and below. Among the respondents rested, only a small amount are students with grade point average lower than 3.00 at 7%. However, this cannot be justified as the overall academic performance of UPM students as it is based on the respondents own intellectual ability. Moreover, some students such as medical undergraduates academic performance do not use CGPA as an evaluation tool. Table 2e:
Current CGPA Cumulative Frequency Valid 3.75-4.00 3.50-3.74 3.25-3.49 3.00-3.24 2.75-2.99 2.50-2.74 2.26-2.49 Total Missing Total 99 61 29 33 34 9 1 1 168 15 183 Percent 33 16 18 19 5 1 1 92 8 100 Valid Percent 36 17 20 20 5 1 1 100 Percent 36.3 53.6 73.2 93.5 98.8 99.4 100.0

The sixth area of the respondents profile tested is the main medium of teaching in their education. (see Table 2f). According to the data analysis, a total percentage of

60% of respondents tested chose Malay as their main medium of teaching throughout their education, which is the highest percentage in the overall analysis. The second highest percentage is Mandarin at 24%, followed by English at 14%. This represent the type of education received by UPM students before the tertiary level, which clearly showed that most of UPM students received Malay and Chinese education before entering tertiary level. Table 2f:
Main medium of teaching Cumulative Frequency Valid Malay English Mandarin Tamil Others Total Missing Total 99 109 25 43 3 2 182 1 183 Percent 60 14 23 2 1 99 1 100 Valid Percent 60 14 24 2 1 100 Percent 59.9 73.6 97.3 98.9 100.0

The seventh area tested is the language spoken at home (see Table 2g), which consist of 60% using Malay as the main medium of communication at home,

followed by 27% who used Mandarin or other Chinese dialects as the medium of communication at home. Only 7% uses English as their main language spoken at home, 4% uses Tamil or other Indian dialects and the rest uses foreign language (2%). Table 2g:
Main language spoken at home Cumulative Frequency Valid Malay English Mandarin or other Chinese dialects Tamil or other Indian dialects Others Total Missing Total 99 109 13 50 7 3 182 1 183 Percent 60 7 27 4 2 99 1 100 Valid Percent 60 7 27 4 2 100 Percent 59.9 67.0 94.5 98.4 100.0

Lastly, the eighth area of the respondents profile tested is the residential area of the respondents home (see Table 2h). According to the analysis, most of the respondents tested in UPM came from rural area, with 52% out of the 183

respondents. Only 48% are from urban area. This showed that most of the students in UPM are from rural area and this data will be used as one of the variable for the study of ethical level of UPM students. Table 2h:
Area Cumulative Frequency Valid Rural Area Urban Area Total 95 88 183 Percent 52 48 100 Valid Percent 52 48 100 Percent 51.9 100.0