“Notwithstanding the rejection of an amendment to the UK’s Higher Education and Research Bill that would have outlawed ‘cheating services’, political and public concern about essay mills remains at a historic high …” (more)
[Stuart Macdonald, Times Higher Education, 25 May]
“Richard Bruton, Minister for Education and Skills, has identified a problem that few others considered as such: ‘unfair’ essay mills, whereby students buy their written academic work online. Leaving aside the fact that there is little evidence – either anecdotally or seriously – to indicate that essay mills are indeed a problem large enough to distort student outcomes, this seems like yet another example of the government diverting our attention away from more important concerns …” (more)
[University Times, 21 May]
“Sir, – The Minister for Education speaks of the need to legislate to stamp out cheating by the use of ‘essay mills’ that sell essays on demand (‘Bruton outlines bill to tackle cheating in education system’, May 15th). Trinity College Dublin does not share the Minister’s concern. Trinity admit students to study law, of all things, on the basis of an essay whose author is unknown …” (more)
[John McAvoy, Irish Times, 18 May]
“The Education Minister is looking to clamp down on ‘essay mills’ that are selling work to third-level students. It will be made an offence under new draft laws aimed at cutting down on cheating in higher education …” (more)
[Fionnuala Jones, Newtalk, 15 May]
“New Bill to Tackle Academic Cheating, Establish an International Education Mark. Institutes of Technology to Have Greater Autonomy in Awarding Bachelors and Masters Degrees. The Minister for Education and Skills, Richard Bruton, TD, has today (Monday) announced that the Government have approved the draft outline of a law which will provide new powers to the Higher and Further Education Regulator, QQI, to improve the quality of our education system …” (more)
[Department of Education and Skills, 15 May]
“Firms that provide written-to-order essays and dissertations for third-level students face prosecution under new laws. The move is a response to rising concern over the influence of ‘essay mill’ websites which allow students to bypass plagiarism-detection systems …” (more)
[Carl O’Brien, Irish Times, 15 May]
