Scam artists are flogging essays to Scots university students for almost £180 that “guarantee” them a pass.
The fake papers on offer have resulted in a cheating epidemic at some of the country’s top educational institutions.
The Daily Record has uncovered shocking new figures showing some universities have reported offences rising by more than 1000 per cent in recent years.
Fraudsters at internet-based “essay mills” are targeting Scottish students after it was outlawed in England a year ago but remains legal in Scotland.
Academics and senior politicians have demanded a legal crackdown and warn that the integrity of our top universities is under threat due to the rise of scammers and the unscrupulous students who copy work online.
Our investigation uncovered a range of “essay mills” offering services to Scots students.
The UK-Assignments.com website comes near the top of Google searches for “UK essay service”.
We were quoted £176 for a 2000-word politics essay by the firm, topically titled “Evaluate the Success or Failure of Nicola Sturgeon as First Minister of Scotland”.
We spoke to boss Nigel Blair, making clear we wanted our essay done from scratch. He assured us the service was 100 per cent legal and he guaranteed we would not get caught.
He said: “We have a 100 per cent plagiarism check and we guarantee you will pass. We have people who work in universities in Scotland who earn money on the side by doing this work for us, so there is no danger of failing.”
A check of Companies House shows that a Nigel Blair is the sole director of a company called UK Assignments Ltd, a dormant firm which was voluntarily liquidated last February.
When the Record confronted Blair by phone, accusing him of immoral and unethical behaviour, he claimed essays provided are to assist learning.
He said: “We provide model answers. And it’s not just assignments, either. We provide all kinds of writing assistance.”
Other organisations designed to churn out cheat assignments include dissertationworld.co.uk – which targets Scottish students.
An online agent, supposedly named Max Harrison, told our reporter a 2000-word essay could be supplied for £160 – £80 up front and £80 on delivery.
He added: “You will be getting an offline plagiarism report along with the work to ensure the work has been done from scratch and was not copied and pasted from anywhere.”
Max added: “Each piece of work is personalized to your requirements.”
At essayfactory.co.uk, we were quoted £140 for an essay tailored to our specifications.
The agent – Joy – told us: “No one will know you have availed any kind of service from the online essay writing agency, we never share such information.Each paper is checked for uniqueness using specially-designed plagiarism detection software.”
Our findings came as no surprise to academics, whose workload has now increased dramatically as they seek to catch the cheats.
One lecturer at Glasgow University has revealed several emergency anti-cheat working groups have been set up to combat the crisis.
The senior academic said: “This is a very real threat and it’s already devaluing degrees all over Scotland. It will be happening at schools and colleges too.
There is a meltdown going on with essays and the students that get caught cheating only represent the tip of the iceberg. Clever students can retro-fit the plagiarised or contracted work to make sure references stand up and they understand what they’re submitting.
“The way things are going, some of the degrees being awarded won’t be worth the paper they’re printed on.”
Another prominent academic from Edinburgh University said the situation is affecting all education institutions.
He said: “It is pretty much accepted that the face of learning will change dramatically in the next couple of years. There will be more presentations and different faculties may have to ditch essays altogether, as cheating is so rife.
“We’ve been moving away from final exams but they may well be making a big comeback at this rate.”
Academics and politicians have demanded the Scottish Government urgently passes laws to ban profiteering by essay mills.
There were also demands last night for an immediate crackdown organised between the government, universities, colleges and schools.
Scottish Labour education spokesman Michael Marra said: “The government must be prepared to work with schools and universities to tackle cheating and maintain the integrity of our education system.
“Playing by the rules is at the very core of our education system and every effort must be made to end the scourge of cheating.”
He added: “These so-called ‘essay mills’ must be closed and closed now.”
Scottish Lib Dems education spokesperson Willie Rennie echoed the call for a legal clampdown.
He said: “The Scottish Government should back the efforts being made by our universities by adopting the law passed for England making this cheating illegal.
“This is a race to the gutter for those who think they can cheat their way through university. ”
A spokesperson for the University of Glasgow admitted that an “assessment redesign” had been forced by the cheating explosion, adding: “Institutionally, we are taking a two-pronged approach to tackling academic misconduct.
"Through assessment redesign and with the student learning development team working with the student representative council to improve students’ understanding of good academic practice.
"There is likely to be a combination of reasons for any recent increase in cheating allegations, including an increase in both the number of students and online assessments potentially making it easier for the university to detect occurrences.”
Alastair Sim, director of umbrella group Universities Scotland, said: “Essay mills and their operators prey on insecurities and anxieties of students and we would welcome action to ban them in Scotland so we’re on an
equivalent footing as the rest of the UK.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “The Scottish Government is considering the next steps to tackle contract cheating and ‘essay mills’ in Scotland and recognises legislation may have a role to play as part of a wider package of measures.”
They added that all Scottish higher education institutions have signed up to the Quality Assurance Agency’s Academic Integrity Charter – which is assessing how to fight against essay mills.
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