Cooperative education programs often provide the first interaction of college students with the professional workplace, where they develop a pre professional identity and, in particular, develop and conceptualize a knowledge of accountability, expectations, attitudes, beliefs and ethical values within their future profession. This study scrutinizes the influence of cooperative education - as a mean of work-based learning - on the ethical perceptions of Saudi business students, by investigating the differences in students' perceptions in accordance with their work-based experience, academic major, and formal ethics education. The study hypotheses were tested on a sample of 234 students at KFUPM Business School in Saudi Arabia and the results showed an evolution process of the ethical perceptions, which indicates a maturation of the ethical behavior due to the business environment exposure and not only from practical training or any other single factor. It also shows the insignificance of formal education of ethics as students' ethical perceptions develop during college life towards society's expectations. © 2020 IEEE.
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