The universities watchdog is being asked to pursue websites advertising essay-writing services for students. Universities Minister Jo Johnson said he wanted "tough action" against the spread of plagiarism and the commercial industry it has spawned. The Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) said hundreds of "essay mills" were charging up to £6,750 for writing a PhD dissertation. Mr Johnson said it could "undermine" the reputation of degrees from the UK.
[...] There were about 17,000 cases a year of "academic offences", it said, but there was no breakdown of how many of these involved students who had used essay writing services. Essay-writing websites often carry disclaimers suggesting the essays being sold should be used only as examples and not passed off as students' own work.
[...] Dame Julia Goodfellow, president of Universities UK, said: "Universities have severe penalties for students found to be submitting work that is not their own. "Such academic misconduct is a breach of an institution's disciplinary regulations and can result in students, in serious cases, being expelled from the university." This has been a longstanding problem - and a decade ago Google announced that it would stop running adverts from essay writing services, but such businesses can still be found through online searches.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday February 22 2017, @12:23AM
Considering how poor internet security is, I'm starting a business blackmailing students who got their diplomas by using those sites.
That might be double-blackmail if the sites themselves realize they could easily get extra income. it's not like students will go public and risk their diplomas...
And I concur that the students should lose all their post-high-school diplomas if caught (schools do keep copies of thesis). No need for further punishment, since that's already a lifetime of sucky jobs ahead.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday February 22 2017, @03:05AM
Failure of imagination, a poor sign for a successful entrepreneur; why restrict your market segment to only those "who got their diplomas by using those sites"?
Presently (or in the very near future) only the suspicion cast on a student should be enough to hinder or terminate her/his career.
(grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford