Academic dishonesty, which is a part of educational problems, occurs mostly in religious-based high schools. The dishonest behavior of these students is contrary to the application of character education in educational institutions. This research aimed to describe the experiences of teachers and students in the Programmed Islamic High School (PIHS) relating to academic culture in the development of student character education. The data collection method used in this research was a phenomenological qualitative method by conducting in-depth interviews with four teachers and six students in a PIHS. Apart from the results of the interviews, the acquisition of data was also supported by documentation and observations of the daily activities of the students, which reflected the application of character education. The results showed that the academic culture at PIHS contributes greatly to developing student character education. Character education developed from academic culture can be seen from their academic discourse, publications, knowledge acquisition, disciplinary, and academic activities management. From the academic culture, students have a religious, honest, nationalistic, responsible, cooperative, and independent character. This research suggests that the pattern of academic culture in the development of character education in PIHS can be adopted by other religion-based schools.