My Lords, during the course of debates in Committee, and now on Report, we have heard about how our universities are the best in the world and how it is important to preserve their reputation and the reputation of higher education. Yet at the same time, we see the practice of plagiarism and cheating growing and growing. One has only to look at the 18 or so websites which offer not only to do essays but to employ a tutor to write your whole thesis for you.
Interestingly, the QAA has said that at present it has,
“no legal or regulatory powers to take action … against students guilty of plagiarism”,
essay mills or ghost writers. Why are we sitting back and allowing this to happen and the reputation of our universities to be besmirched? How would your Lordships feel if, as a student, you had worked really hard to get your degree or complete an assignment only to find that other students are paying for somebody to write it for them?
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How serious is this problem? Is it just a minor thing? No, it is a serious problem. According to the QAA, about 17,000 students get caught cheating each year, but those are only the ones who were caught. What about the number who are not caught? Another
study commissioned—interestingly, in Saudi Arabia—found in 2014 that 22% of students reported having paid someone to complete their assignment.
This type of cheating is referred to as contract cheating—a specific type of plagiarism where a student commissions a work produced by a third party for a fee. Recently, these companies have started to advertise in public places, whether that be on university campuses or even on the London Underground.
It has been noted that some students do not plagiarise intentionally, and a disproportionate amount of students who get caught cheating are, sadly, foreign students. We have debated the importance of overseas students but, interestingly, an investigation by the Times newspaper in 2016 suggested that foreign students are four times more likely to cheat.
What are we going to do about this? That is why Amendment 153 has been tabled.
The Tutors’ Association is very concerned about this issue as well, because of course the reputation of tutors supporting and helping students is undermined by the ability of people to write essays for students. I hope that the Government will take notice of this amendment and that we can deal with this in a fair and equitable way.
I would make one final point. Why do students cheat? Why are they forced into going down this path? It might sometimes be from the pressures they find themselves under. It might sometimes be from mental anxiety. As well as making the practice illegal and dealing with those despicable companies that provide this service and obviously want to make a profit, we need to support students as well. I beg to move.