Universities told to throw book at web essay cheats
STUDENTS who cheat using ‘essay mill’ websites face tough penalties under a crackdown.
Universities Minister Jo Johnson is launching nationwide guidance to tackle the growing plagiarism problem on university campuses.
This could lead to undergraduates being expelled for serious offences in future.
At least 100 websites provide custom written essays for students to submit as part of their degrees.
At present, it is left to individual institutions to develop their own plagiarism policies in line with the UK Quality Code for Higher Education.
Mr Johnson has now told higher education watchdog the Quality Assurance Agency, Universities UK, which represents vice chancellors, and the National Union of Students to draw up guidelines to clamp down on campus cheats.
He wants the QAA to take action against the online advertising of essay mill websites, and universities to impose ‘tough new penalties’ on students who use them.
It is understood that the Government expects universities to sign up to this vol- untary guidance, due to be introduced for the 2017/18 academic year, to help create a standard approach across institutions in dealing with students who use these sites.
This could involve recommending that all universities use expulsions to combat use of the websites, or that they place of marks against students’ academic records, which would prevent them studying further, such as for masters degrees.
The Department for Education has not ruled out introducing further sanctions in future such as fines or prosecution, but this would require legislation.
Mr Johnson said: ‘Essay mill websites threaten to undermine the high quality reputation of a UK degree so it is vital that the sector works together to address this in a consistent and robust way.’
A QAA report, published last year, found that essay mill websites often advertise their services to students for a fee and many promote ‘plagiarism free guarantees’ or essays tested against plagiarism detection software. Prices charged can range from £200 for a single essay to as high as £6,750 for a PhD dissertation.