University students fork out thousands to cheat despite regulator crackdown

Australia’s key education regulator has blocked more than 250 illegal cheating websites – but university students are continuing to engage contract cheating services with ease.

The Sunday Herald Sun has found more than 70 contract cheating websites and online classifieds websites promoting assignment-writing services across Melbourne.

University students are paying thousands of dollars for contract cheating services to write their assignments, despite a recent crackdown by Australia’s key education regulator which blocked dozens of websites.

The Sunday Herald Sun has found more than 70 contract cheating websites and online classifieds websites, including Gumtree, promoting assignment-writing services across Melbourne.

Some websites claim to be Australian, but their addresses are linked to offices in India, Spain and Cyprus.

The websites are in some cases operated by criminals, who often attempt to blackmail students into paying large sums of money.

It comes after the higher education regulator TEQSA blocked 100 academic cheating websites earlier this month.

This means 250 illegal cheating websites have been blocked since August 2022.

One website, which claims to offer “plagiarism free” work, quoted the Sunday Herald Sun $500 for an eleven-page assignment on a chemical engineering topic.

When the Sunday Herald Sun asked if the assignment’s content would be picked up by the university plagiarism checkers including Turnitin, the company promised that all work was “written with the highest academic integrity”.

“Work provided by our website is plagiarism free. We have exclusive benefits and best price guarantee,” the company said.

Contract cheating is becoming more popular and “increasingly accessible” to students. Picture: Supplied

University students are paying thousands of dollars for contract cheating services to write their assignments. Picture: Supplied

The company also said there was a 100 per cent “satisfaction guarantee”, including “proper references and a free bibliography”.

University students have also told the Sunday Herald Sun there had been recent warnings from their institutions on using ChatGPT software, with fears it could be used to cheat on assignments.

RMIT Business Analytics Professor Kok-Leong Ong said contract cheating was becoming more popular and “increasingly accessible” to students.

“It is available and being advertised all over the internet and on social media pages – it is certainly very worrying,” he said.

“And then we’ve got apps like Telegram which have highly secure communication. It makes it much harder for universities to track this type of contract cheating service.”

Professor Ong said the federal government’s move to ban contract cheating sites was the “right thing to do” but shouldn’t be the only approach to clamping down on these services.

“It’s the right move, it sends the right message to students. It also is clearly a deterrent for the operators,” he said.

Last year, there were 533 cases of alleged contract cheating reported at the University of Melbourne.

“The University of Melbourne works with the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency to address matters relating to academic integrity, and staff are provided with professional development opportunities including a masterclass delivered by TEQSA on contract cheating detection and deterrence,” a spokesperson said.

Professor Liz Johnson says Deakin University continues to invest in new and innovative ways of monitoring and detecting contract cheating. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

In 2021, there were 238 instances of contract cheating at Deakin University, with some students found to have contract cheated in more than one instance.

Deakin Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Academic Professor Liz Johnson, said like all universities, Deakin continued to invest in new and innovative ways of monitoring and detecting contract cheating.

At Monash University, all students are required to complete a compulsory Academic Integrity module when they commence their studies at Monash to ensure they clearly understand university expectations.

Victoria University has recently changed their integrity guidelines for students, making it mandatory to report any use of AI in assessments.

“Victoria University is not banning students using Chat GPT software or other technologies that use artificial intelligence,” a spokesperson said.

Australian Catholic University Provost Professor Meg Stuart said the university is “looking carefully” at how its approach evolves in keeping with the changing technology.

“We don’t want to create unintended consequences by banning its use altogether; this could stand in the way of incorporating it into our teaching,” Professor Stuart said.