More Australian Students Contract cheating – Interview with Dr Guy Curtis

According to a newly published report, it seems 1 in 10 Australian University students are paying others to do their assignments. RTR’s Allan Boyd caught up with senior lecturer Guy Curtis to discuss the concept of Contract Cheating…

New research shows that 10 percent of Australian university students are contract cheating – four times the rate than previously thought.
Contract cheating involves paying other people to do your uni work and then submitting it as if it were your own. This practice includes sitting exams and essay-writing – referred to as ‘ghost-writing’. And it seems the practice is on the rise…

Incidents of contract cheating have hit the media, such as the MyMaster scandal which involved thousands of students employing a Sydney company to write essays and assignments for them – as well as sit online tests – and paying up to 1000 bucks for the service.

And whilst previous research has suggested between 2 and 4 percent of Australian university students handed in work written by contractors – new research suggests it’s more like 10 percent – and they’re getting away with it.

To discuss this, I’m joined by Dr Guy Curtis – Senior Lecturer in Applied Psychology, at UWA… whose article was published in the Conversation.