Nottingham joins the call to ban ‘essay mills’
September 27th, 2018
The University of Nottingham is backing a campaign calling for government legislation to ban so-called ‘essay mills’, which has been widely reported on BBC News.
Vice-Chancellor Professor Shearer West has joined more than 40 Vice-Chancellors in signing an open letter to the Secretary of State for Education, Damian Hinds, which states: “We are confident that you abhor such cheating as much as we do and encourage you to take the necessary steps to curb these practices, steps which must include a legislative ban on operating or advertising an essay mill.”
Registrar Paul Greatrix invited University staff to add their names to the online Parliamentary petition, which calls for a ban, saying:
“Instances of cheating at Nottingham are thankfully rare and in every case are wholly unacceptable. Students must declare the work is their own, and we promote study skills, specialist software, email filters and academic review to counter plagiarism. The promotion of essay mills is banned on campus. But the best way to tackle essay mills is to ban them, which is why we support the current campaign calling on government to legislate in this area.”
The full text of the open letter is available to view here: Essay Mills – Letter.
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September 30th, 2018 at 1:09 am
Shaun Croft
Essay Mills make a mockery of higher education; how is an employer going to discern somebody who is able to do a job from somebody who is unable yet cheated and has the same grade?
A degree is worthless while this is allowed to continue. Perhaps society needs to be honest about the fact that not every is equally gifted in the IQ department and stop pushing people who aren’t suited to university towards it?
Banning Essay Mills is the first step towards redeeming Higher education.
September 30th, 2018 at 6:26 pm
Annette Danemann
Working in a University it is apparent that this is becoming more widespread. There are targeted campaigns that infiltrate the campus and is difficult to contain. Without some legislation the problem is that it will become more acceptable.
October 1st, 2018 at 11:19 am
Sascha Cornelius
This has to be stopped. Uni is hard, but the hard work is what is rewarded and it is completely unfair to those of us who earn our Firsts and 2:1s to be undermined by lazy people who outsource their work.
October 2nd, 2018 at 9:24 pm
John Westby
I live within a few miles of an essay mill, and it seems to be an immoral business model, but perhaps inevitable when up to 50% of young people are targeted at university.