The quality of degrees from British universities is being undermined by a large number of online “essay mills” and India-based “contract cheating” that enables students to acquire assignments – from essays to PhD dissertations – for a fee, officials and academics say.
Universities minister Jo Johnson on Tuesday called on university and student bodies to do more to deal with the spread of “essay mills” or websites that provide custom written essays for students to submit as part of their degree
Academics told Hindustan Times that thousands of students at British universities have also been using Indian expertise in IT in a growing phenomenon called “contract cheating”, whereby course assignments are contracted to freelancers and others online for a fee.
The phenomenon – first reported in academic circles in 2008 by Thomas Lancaster and Robert Clarke at Birmingham City University – has become more sophisticated over the years, making it difficult to detect through usual plagiarism detection software.
Lancaster, now at Staffordshire University, told Hindustan Times: “We’ve observed a lot of people from India bidding to complete academic work for students. They make offers that are very appealing to students from the UK, they’ll do the assignment for what is a low price for a UK student, but a good living wage for the worker in India.”
