Most of the Duke University business students swept up in a cheating scandal last month are from Asia, their lawyer told The News & Observer, a newspaper in Raleigh, N.C. In the scandal, 34 M.B.A. students were found to have shared answers on an open-book take-home examination in a required course. Nine have been expelled, 15 suspended, and 10 flunked.

The lawyer, Robert Ekstrand, who has filed appeals for 16 of the students, said many of them had recently arrived in the United States, were unfamiliar with honor codes, and were pressured into admitting they had cheated. If the appeals fail, the students will lose their student visas and will be forced to return home. —Andrew Mytelka