India­based ‘contract cheating’ hits UK varsities

Wednesday, 22/02/2017

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LONDON: 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 HT 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 told HT: “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.”

Universities have plagiarism detection software, but several websites also offer “plagiarism-free guarantees”, or essays and assignments tested against such detection software, making it difficult for academics to confirm the authenticity of a student’s work.

Johnson said: “This form of cheating is unacceptable and every university should have strong policies and sanctions in place to detect and deal with it.”

The spread of “essay mill” websites was uncovered in a report by the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), an independent body tasked with safeguarding standards and improving the quality of higher education in Britain.

The QAA confirmed the existence of more than 100 such websites, with prices depending on the complexity of assignments and tightness of deadlines. They can range from a couple of hundred pounds for one essay to as high as £6,750 for a PhD dissertation.

According to Lancaster, India-based advertising for such services mention possession of degrees from UK universities, which suggests they are familiar with the British education system.