Student cheating has been described as an “epidemic” from a 2016 Times investigation of 29 UK universities, finding that almost 50,000 students had been caught cheating within the previous three years (Mostrous & Kenber,... [ view full abstract ]
Student cheating has been described as an “epidemic” from a 2016 Times investigation of 29 UK universities, finding that almost 50,000 students had been caught cheating within the previous three years (Mostrous & Kenber, 2016). Cheating is no longer just scant or sloppy referencing, or copy-pasting of content. “Ghost-writing” services are fast emerging as a growth industry, and are the focus of this document.
Given that a large-scale undertaking such as a Master’s level dissertation is typically a capstone, students cheating on it is more serious than on in-term coursework. With the rise of cloud computing, x-as-a-service offerings are common. This research investigates dissertation-as-a-service i.e. ghost-writing services for dissertations. What websites does Google return from a search for this term, what do these websites offer as part of their service, does they comprise cheating, and might answers vary depending on whose perspective is being taken?
Google returned “about 20,900,000 results”, from sites scattered around the globe. The first 2 pages of these (20 results) were analysed under a number of key headings, the most notable being whether they presented themselves as facilitating student plagiarism, and what a typical student might perceive the site to be.
Almost all are very obviously sites that write the dissertation (or at least part of it) for the student. Some present as consultancy services but then give themselves away by student testimonials which say otherwise. Such sites can avoid accusations of facilitating plagiarism by saying they are providing the “model answer” as a lecturer would, and what the student does with this is the students choice. Yet the ethos of their sites say otherwise.
Conclusion – the practice is just too tempting for some students and there is a need for collective action among students, dissertation supervisors and institutions to turn students away from it.
References:
Mostrous, A. & Kenber, B. (2016), Universities face student cheating crisis. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/universities-face-student-cheating-crisis-9jt6ncd9vz7
