DD paid £130 to get an assignment done for her.

[Piggie90]

DD went away this long weekend and completely ignored her college research project before she went away. Cut a very long story short, she used some of her birthday money (18th) to pay a company (didn't even know they existed) to write a 2500 word project for her.

AIBU to never lend her a penny again? I'm actually fuming.

My daughter’s BFF was accused of plagarism not because she submitted work similar to something Turnitin had assessed before but because she took quite a controversial and unusual approach to the essay subject which made her tutor think it wasn’t her own work. She was kicked off the course and told she would not be graduating.

It took months for it to be sorted out. She had to appeal and it was turned down. Her parents took it further and threatened to sue the Uni. Eventually they employed a fairly high level legal advisor and by providing evidence of her research notes, uni library records and Amazon purchase history proving she had accessed the many publications she had referenced, copies and dates of the myriad draft versions stored on her laptop and in the Cloud and finally an interview with a professor from another university where she had to explain and defend her argument, it was agreed it was her own original work. It secured her a first and the uni paid all the legal expenses her family had incurred.

She was lucky that her family had the necessary legal contacts to know where to look for help and the money to pay them, but the toll on her mental health was enormous. The stigma of being labelled a cheat (no smoke without fire), not being able to graduate with her friends, 6 months of limbo where she couldn’t apply for jobs. It was an absolute nightmare. And all because some arrogant dick of a tutor couldn’t believe that someone could have studied with him and yet have a completely different view of the set topic to him.

I think it is very likely what she thinks is a cunning plan will be discovered and depending on the course she is doing, she may very well be asked to leave.

I wouldn't be too supportive to someone who got kicked out for cheating tbh. I hope she's got another plan to fall back on.

Wow whyohwhy. What a story.
Perhaps shows that the wide availability of essays for sale has created a climate of distrust?

Fazackerly It's common practice among international students on elite courses. Unis know and don't care.

Bullshit. Most universities have rigorous rules around plagiarism/ collaboration. Far from 'not caring' the uni where I would work would call the student to an Academic Misconduct Panel and the work would receive a big fat '0'. A second offence would get the student withdrawn from the course.

Most courses have particular reading lists and markers would be looking for key readings in the references, so I'm not sure how these essay-writing farms get around that.

Ice Rebel Wouldn't that then result in 100% plagiarism rate, as the essay has already been through the software?
You can set up a 'draft checking' area on Turnitin, so originality can be checked without the work being 'recorded' in the Turnitin system. Once the work is properly submitted somewhere, it would indeed show as 100% plagiarised.

Good for her, it's just one assignment.

Some of the comments on this thread are so stupid that the authors might have been better just paying a company to write them.

My friend works at a very good uni (Russell group). She says some foreign students can hardly have a basic conversation in English but do submit the assignments etc. Either someone is doing the work for them and those students are a fraud or they mainly talk in their own language and as a result they don't develop their spoken English.

I know someone not very academic who retrained as a mature student as a teacher. This was about 10 years ago but he bragged at the time that he’d got all his essays “from the internet” so cut and paste or essay mill, I don’t know.

He’s a primary school headmaster now and a slippery dishonest character in every aspect of his life. Very charming though.

When I was like 18 I also paid for one assignment. I couldn't do some technical drawing very well. Never used that kind of drawing since. I don't feel bad about it.

I wouldn’t dob her in personally and I say this as a college tutor who is also a parent. It will either be flagged up on turnitin or the tutor will notice it is absolutely nothing like her previous work.

She may get away with it but if she doesn’t, the college have licence to kick her off the course. Students are regularly warned about plagiarism.

I do think that higher consideration should be given for exams than written work. If a student fails every exam, is known not to show up to most lectures but somehow gets 60-70% in every essay as a lecturer I'd be suspicious. It is incredibly frustrating to see people who (quite clearly when you ask a simple question) don't understand the content of any of the modules graduate with the same grade as people who worked hard all the way through, never missed a lecture and can at the very least hold a decent discussion on every module they took.

From my recent experience I do think sometimes lecturers turn a blind eye for ease (if they can't directly show this is what is happening) and the funding.

@Itssosunny - exactly. Imagine graduating with a similar grade knowing the person next to you didn't bother and try telling the one who did they should be proud. I have cringed thinking of some of the people walking around saying they got the same degree as me who clearly couldn't explain a single aspect of what we learnt. It certainly doesn't do the course or the Uni any favours.

LonelyTiredandLow, my friend who works at a top university told me some students don't even attend the lectures. She can't remember their faces yet they give the feedback. Simply CF.

plagiarism or this version of it is the best way to really, really fuck up not just your current stint in higher education, but any future ones and could even have legal consequences, and they always find out

I would be saying very cheerfully "oh well you'd better hope they're telling the truth about TurnItIn, after all they've got your money now" and "make sure you know what it says in case someone asks questions about what's in your essay and how you wrote it" and "will you get in trouble if you get caught?"

And then let her do the worrying.

I’m a private tutor and am constantly amazed at how many requests I get from undergrads to do this. (Obviously I don’t!!) I’m gobsmacked there are people out there willing to put their professional reputations on the line by doing it. I would tell her college.

@Itssosunny it really does affect the students who do bother though. I found it a very negative experience and has completely changed my opinion of people with degrees. I think it is a lot to do with the culture change and political climate too - I am not surprised people don't always trust 'experts' although real experts are literally the ones writing the book

It certainly doesn't do the course or the Uni any favours.

At some universities even very good one they accept too many students because the universities need money. Some people in the top earn like investment bankers. Fat cats. However, when the universities accept too many of such students their rating gets affected. All that greed for money backfires.

People have tutors for A levels and uni now don’t they? No doubt many an assignment is very thoroughly sketched out at the very least.

Though why you would need a tutor at uni is beyond me. Surely it’s all about self managed learning.

Well, I hope the nurses and future doctors don't do it although sometimes I do wonder.

@Itssosunny - yes I agree. I do think though that if departments can ignore the issue where 20% barely show up (we had a group of about 15 ppl who would hand other people their cards to swipe to say they had attended which they did quite brazenly) but get good essay results yet fail exams constantly, they will do it without questioning too much. Also the ones who obviously don't know anything show themselves up when they do attend which is a huge drain of time (particularly in Seminars but also meant we had to constantly have sessions on basics of "how to write an essay" even though other resources for this were available) but should be a huge red light to lecturers.

Though why you would need a tutor at uni is beyond me. Surely it’s all about self managed learning.

It's supposed to be a self-managed learning but many undergrads need spoon feeding. It's very difficult for the lecturers as there are too many lazy and entitled students.

If you do a STEM subject part time you can get funding for a second degree. I'm doing one now with the OU

Oh, tell me more please - how do get the funding?

twofingerstoEverything

Excuse me, but it is absolutely not bullshit

TinklyLittleLaugh

Degrees can be revoked.

There will be a copy of his dissertation kept at the university he attended.

It makes me sad that this is so prevalent. As pps have said I wouldn't be angry about the money but the fact that she cheated. It is dishonest and means she won't learn anything. I probably wouldn't report her but as pps have said she may well get caught anyway. I second what an earlier poster said about letting her get a part time job and learn some responsibility. Don't give her money and make it clear that what she's done is not OK and that if she does get a good grade on this essay it won't mean anything and she won't deserve it. She needs to learn to actually do her work and not swan off on holiday. Maybe she's on the wrong course?