The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Academics are being recruited by online ‘essay mills’ as cheats for hire for struggling students.
Scots academics have been found selling work to firms that aid cheating
Scots academics are being recruited by online “essay mills” to produce assignments for desperate students, despite pleas by university bosses to crack down on contract cheating.
Leaders from institutions across Scotland have called for an outright ban on the industry, which has seen hundreds of new businesses pop up and claims of predatory tactics used to ensnare vulnerable international students.
But an investigation by The Courier reveals that academics at some of Scotland’s most renowned universities are selling their expertise to online companies to help students cheat.
The firms offer to produce bespoke, original work, which cannot easily be picked up by anti-plagiarism software, and places adverts for customers and staff on platforms ranging from social media to public transport.
A recent survey found as many as one in seven recent graduates may have cheated by using essay millsduring the last four years and international students have reported being inundated with scores of solicitous emails to official university accounts.
Some UK businesses have moved to distance themselves from the tactics of their overseas counterparts and present as a legitimate academic resource for struggling students.
Nottingham-based All Answers, a firm which offers 1,000-word “model” undergraduate essays for as little as £122, on a sliding price scale by grade, currently has around 15 researchers and writers based in Scotland.
One, a Masters student at a Glasgow university, claimed she is now able to earn more in a typical month than when she was supporting her studies with two simultaneous part-time jobs.
She said: “Students feel a real pressure to perform because grades are so important to getting a job or being accepted on another course.
“The company outlines very clearly that you do not know what is going to happen with the work you produce.
“It’s just a product, at the end of the day. For us, it’s a simple transaction.”
The 23-year-old said she had observed students in the UK and other countries who had in effect “purchased their degree” by contracting out every assignment. I feel there should be more respect for the work we do,” she said.
“Some are writing essays in a single month that would be enough to earn a Bachelors degree, and we have to be skilled in a lot of different areas.
“I think it’s really useful for showing how a question can be approached but it should not just be copied. I have never seen anyone openly admit to submitting purchased essays but I do know a lot of it happens under cover.”
All Answers said it “refuses to sell to cheats” and that its product is “no different to using the services of a tutor, discussing work with classmates or using published academic resources as a point of reference”.
Dr Daniel Sokol, a former university lecturer and founder of Alpha Academic Appeals, a legal firm that represents students accused of misconduct, claimed the “zeal” to crack down on cheats had already led to innocents being punished.
He said he had experienced a variety of clients, including those who are expelled despite being innocent and one who was unable to produce a single essay for linguistic analysis because he had contracted every assignment on his course.
“I have no problems with universities coming down hard on ‘contract cheating’ but we must be very careful not to catch and punish students who haven’t cheated,” Dr Sokol said.
I have never seen anyone openly admit to submitting purchased essays