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New legislation, clearer student communication and increasingly sophisticated technology will be needed in the fight against proliferating “contract cheating” services, says Anthony McClaran, head of the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency.
Contract cheating, where essay mills sell students bespoke assignments, essays and even doctoral theses, along with fake doctor’s certificates and degree authentication certificates, has emerged as a vexed issue for universities in much of the developed world.
Increasingly sophisticated technology, the rise of the “sharing” economy and students who struggle to study in a language not their own have combined to jump-start contract cheating services, and campuses across Australia have been targeted with contract cheating leaflets, posters and online communications.
The federal government has been concerned about this trend, and TEQSA was provided with an additional $24.3 million across the next four years, including extra resources for the agency to crack down on contract cheating.
Mr McClaran said he expected the federal Department of Education and Training, with the Council of Australian Governments’ Education Council, would determine whether it was feasible to establish consistent legislation across Australia to effectively outlaw the provision and advertising of cheating services.
“We support a move in that direction,” he said. “There is similar legislation in place in New Zealand.”
Certain Australian jurisdictions already have tackled the problem with advertising codes that prohibit the advertising of fraudulent services. “I think the question here is whether that can be brought together in a nationally consistent approach to making contract cheating illegal,” Mr McClaran said.
