Dartmouth college has suspended 64 students accused of cheating in a sports ethics class and charged them with breaking the exclusive Ivy League school's honour code.

College officials confirmed the number of students charged but declined to comment further until the appeals process ends later this month.

The students under investigation are all athletes who were being given special classes in ethics and religion.

Prof Randall Balmer noticed he was receiving far more answers to his questions than students in the class

Dartmouth College suspended 64 students for cheating in an ethic class (suspended students not in picture)

Professor Randall Balmer confirmed that most of the students had been suspended for a term.

The alleged scandal involves hand-held electronic clickers which are used to answer questions during college classes.

It is believed that some students may have passed their clickers onto their classmates who answered the questions on their behalf.

According to The Boston Globe, the scandal was unearthed after Prof Balmer noticed that he was receiving significantly more answers to his questions by electronic clicker than the number of students sitting before him in the lecture theater.

Prof Balmer described the situation of cheating in an ethics course was ironic and 'very sad and regrettable on many levels'.

He said: 'A lot of the students will probably come away with a stain on their transcripts. And, a level of trust that is so necessary for students and teachers has been betrayed, and I feel sad about that.'

Prof Balmer reported his concerns, which initially involved 43 of the 280 students in the class. A further 21 came forward after details of the investigation were made public.

The college confirmed that honour code violations were considered 'major misconduct'.

I think honour no longer is something that has a lot of resonance in society Prof Randall Balmer

Prof Balmer added: 'I think honour no longer is something that has a lot of resonance in society, and I suppose in some ways it’s not surprising that students would want to trade the nebulous notion of honour with what they perceive as some sort of advantage in professional advancement.'

According to college newspaper The Dartmouth, Prof Balmer has decided against failing those students found guilty of cheating and instead reduced their grades by one letter.

More than seven in 10 of the students on the course are members of the various college athletics teams.

Prof Balmer said: 'Part of the reason I designed this course was that I had the sense that some athletes coming here to Dartmouth might have felt just a little bit overwhelmed or intimidated academically.