Call for ban on essay mill firms that tempt students to cheat
Claisse Opulencia and Amy Woodyatt UNSCRUPULOUS essay mill companies are using social media to tempt students into cheating.
According to the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), which monitors standards in universities, firms have been infiltrating private freshers’ Facebook groups to advertise their services, and have even contacted students through personal messages on the social network. In other cases, the essay mills have accessed first year students’ private WhatsApp group conversations and used Twitter to target students who complain about their workload.
Students can end up paying hundreds of pounds for commissioned essays and assignments for their degrees and even doctorates. It is not illegal for essay mill companies to operate in the UK, but universities impose penalties on students caught cheating, including disqualification from their degree.
Gareth Crossman, from the QAA, said essay mill firms often claim to offer legitimate study aids, “a message which new students in particular might be vulnerable to”.
Lauren Davies, a first year sociology student at Canterbury Christ Church University in Kent, said: “On [our Facebook group], students would often exchange phone numbers and receive invitations to join various group chats on WhatsApp, which were then targeted by the essay mills. They post adverts every day, sometimes up to three times a day, suggesting that if students paid £300-plus we would receive their essay writing services, and not ‘gamble with our grades’.”
One Liverpool University Masters student wrote on Twitter: “I don’t know what to write for my essay [and] it’s due in two weeks…”
Within hours she was sent essay writing offers, with one firm promising “no plagiarism” and another guaranteeing “quality”.
A QAA spokesman said: “We are working hard with students to avoid plagiarism through support and education. This is a national issue and we have asked that the Government take action through legislation.”
‘They post adverts every day, suggesting that if students paid £300-plus we would receive their essay services’
Sam Gyimah, the universities minister, said the firms’ aggressive tactics were “shocking and appalling” and called on social media companies to act, adding that previously the Government had forced YouTube, owned by Google, to remove adverts for essay mills. He also warned universities to “get a grip” on the problem by stopping essay mill advertising on campus and blocking emails to the students.
Vice-chancellors have written to Damian Hinds, the Education Secretary, to demand action. Several countries have legislated against essay mills and they say similar laws are needed in Britain.