At the UK Essays website, ordering a final dissertation for an English literature degree takes no more than three minutes. The process starts by selecting the country, subject, and required grade. After this, one can choose the length of the dissertation and specify the deadline, which may range from seven to two days. Price calculators indicate how much a particular order would cost, with a two-day turnaround currently amounting to £1,236. Clicking on the "next step" button takes one to a page where they can enter their topic, and a suitable writer will be matched to produce an essay personalized to one’s requirements. All Answers, a company based in Nottinghamshire, owns UK Essays, and its Chief Operating Officer, Daniel Dennehy, claims that the essays produced by his company are guaranteed to meet the grade ordered, and their quality is assured. The promise is that essays produced are free of plagiarism and delivered on time.
According to Dennehy, UK Essays is a legal enterprise, and its operations are ethical since the writers and editorial teams are not supposed to prepare papers on behalf of clients. Instead, customers are expected to use the write-ups as study aids that increase their knowledge of the subject matter, thereby enabling them to write their papers. The firm reportedly sold 16,000 assignments in 2018, up from 10,000 five years earlier. In a bid to regulate the increase of essay mills, Jo Johnson, the United Kingdom universities minister, has called upon student unions and universities to work together. He describes the use of online essay mills as a significant obstacle to academic integrity. Guidelines to be published ahead of the coming academic year are expected to call for policies to regulate the sector, and the government is ready to beef up laws if necessary.
The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education, which is responsible for standardizing academic policies, carried out an investigation last summer regarding online essay mills. The report revealed major irregularities in policies concerning plagiarism across different universities, and also highlighted weaknesses in fraud laws that make it difficult to address the issue of online essay mills fully. The report recommends a ban on advertising by essay mills and explores the role search engines play in delivering these mills’ results to students. The government reckons that over 100 online essay mills are currently operational, with fees ranging from £106 for GCSE coursework to £82,238 for PhD dissertations containing 100,000 words. According to Prof Phil Newton, learning, and teaching Director at Swansea University, the number of students paying for essays could be higher than 20,000 yearly. Newton advocates for tighter regulations and a review of current laws.
The issue of contract plagiarism, commonly known as cheating, has been the subject of a hot debate on the appropriate response. Some argue that stricter rules or laws will only drive offenders to the “model answers industry” or essay mills. Meanwhile, many students have complained of being fleeced off their money with substandard work. However, critics contend that contract plagiarism is merely one facet of the commodification of higher education.
Foreign students, who pay tuition fees as high as £40,000 per annum in the UK, are a significant income source for many universities. In 2014-2015, non-EU students contributed £4.2bn, which sums up to almost 30% of all the income generated from tuition fees. Consequently, universities rely heavily on international students with deep pockets, hence why they oppose government plans to reduce their number. Despite this, former essay mill writer, Dave Tomar, claims that many ill-equipped students land in these universities, with a limited understanding of British academic norms and weak written English. Dave explains that most cheaters are often struggling, having invested handsomely and do not want to fail. Tomar, who worked as a mill writer for a decade, wrote around 4,000 essays for American and British clients earning $60,000 (almost £50,000) per annum before he left the industry in 2013.
There is, however, a valid argument that cheating is a consequence of a failing educational system that places students out of their depths, without the requisite skills to undertake their coursework satisfactorily. Claire (not her true name), for instance, wrote essays during her first year at Cambridge University and, also, discovered that most of her clients were foreign students. According to Claire, the UK system depends heavily on foreign students’ incomes while companies that offer essay writing services undermine the value of the very degree certificates that attract these foreign students in the first place. As a result, it spirals into a cycle of devaluation.
Newton recognizes that in some cases, students lack the necessary skills to complete good written work when they arrive at university. However, students must know the difference between fair and foul play, and that cheating has been punished with the severest of penalties (Swansea University expels violators). What has changed, according to Newton, is the increasing accessibility and aesthetics of the sites which appeal to students who, under normal circumstances, would not consider cheating. “The easier it is, the more likely it is to happen,” he says.
Several essay mills thrive without making any effort to avert potential cheaters. For example, OK Essay removed its ads from London Underground stations, next to universities after protests, having claimed to have served more than 10,000 customers. Their homepage reads, “Looking for experts to ‘Write my essay for me’? Choose us and we won’t disappoint you!” Aside from several clauses hidden in the Terms and Conditions, the site does not explicitly indicate it would not be liable for the consequences of paper submissions. In an attempt to establish the level of condonance, we posed as a struggling history student and called their customer support line for clarification. The exchange with the agent was insightful as they responded, “I’m not able to tell you whether it’s possible or not. We just write the paper for you and you can use it for what you want.” The company is registered in Sheffield though no physical address is on the site, which conceals its domain registration details. Additionally, the Terms and Conditions indicate that it’s owned by Elabama Inc, a company incorporated in Panama. Despite several calls and emails as a journalist, the company refused to respond to the suggestion that it appears to condone cheating.
The Advertising Standards Authority declared in 2013 that Oxbridge Essays violated its code by guaranteeing “that you will receive at least the grade you order”. The promise inferred that the company would submit the essays, which was prohibited in its terms and conditions, according to the authority’s ruling. Philip Malamatinas, the founder of the site in 2006, refused to respond to questions or Claire’s assertion that the company was aware of the contravention. In a statement, he wrote that the organisation collaborated with many students who came to them after being disappointed by a system that punishes non-native English speakers and who typically have to pay three or four times the amount that UK students pay in tuition fees. Unfortunately, since our universities are understaffed, learners are forced to rely on private firms to cover their academic needs.
Alexander Proudfoot, CEO of Independent Higher Education (formerly Study UK), which represents over 130 private institutions, advocates for model answers: “I think they’re incredibly valuable, especially for international students.” He attended the QAA plagiarism forum before last year’s report’s release. “We’d be happy for there to be a national database of essays. If you made them accessible, then the demand for essay mills goes out the window.” Newton, who also participated in the forum, believes that showing students how essays are written is more conducive to learning, but also acknowledges that a particular title, grade, and references may require a model answer. Nonetheless, none of the essay websites sought could explain why they are so eager to guarantee originality, often two days before the deadline, if their work is only intended as a model, and not to assist pupils in avoiding software for detecting plagiarism, Newton says.
Newton thinks increasing face-to-face and practical evaluation is part of the solution. Proudfoot believes that institutions should allocate funds towards classes on essay writing and critical thinking, as well as tutorial support for pupils who feel cornered. Claire concurs. She decided to stop writing essays for other than herself when the stresses of her own studies made it impossible. “My dad also told me, ‘You might not be thinking about the wider repercussions of this now, but think about later,’ and I thought – you know, you might be right.”