Contract Cheating & Essay Mills

One of the biggest threats to academic integrity at the moment is the use of contract cheating services, also known as "essay mills". Generally, contract cheating refers to having a third party produce academic work on your behalf. This could be a friend, family member, or tutor, or it could be a company or online service. Whether or not payment is made for the academic work, this is academic misconduct as it is a form of plagiarism wherein the person who has undertaken the work is not the one who is submitting it or receiving credit for it. While there are serious consequences for contract cheating regardless of who the third party is, there are additional risks associated with the companies offering to complete your work for you for a fee.

Companies offering to write your assignments for you, or essay mills, are one of the most common forms of contract cheating services operating online. If you search for help writing an essay online, these services may be some of the first results you get. Equally, if you post on social media about struggling with assignments, bots representing these services might respond to you directing you to their websites. Often these sites advertise their services as strictly helping students with their work, like a tutoring service, and as being completely legal, and 100% plagiarism free – so it can be easy to mistake them for a helpful resource. However, this is not the case. In fact, these services are operating illegally in Ireland, and any time you submit work that you have not completed yourself, it is plagiarism. Be wary of any site that offers to “help” you with your assignments in this way.

Using these online services can pose several risks to you as a student, beyond the repercussions of academic misconduct within the University. As these services are operating illegally, they are not regulated, and your data may not be safe with them. There have been several leaks of student information from these services in the past. Equally, while they may guarantee quality work within a certain timeframe, they cannot be held to this, and will often provide students with work past the deadline that does not receive good marks. This means that you may receive poor marks on this work in addition to missing out on the learning involved in doing your own work, and the ability to develop and improve your work with the feedback you will receive on it. Finally, these services sometimes blackmail students by threatening to inform the University of their misconduct if the student does not continue to pay them.

These services often target students who are under pressure with their assignments, presenting themselves as being there for you when the University is not. The reality, however, is that they are just trying to make money, they won’t help you develop your own work or skills, and they can add to stress and anxiety by being unreliable or even threatening. If you are struggling with any of your assignments, please reach out to your lecturer or tutor to come up with a plan, connect with the Skills Centre, or look at our online resources out of hours. Do not turn to these services for help!

Since 2019, Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI) is able to prosecute these services – not the students who use them! – in an effort to try to stop them operating. If you are contacted by one of these services, please et us know here: Report Contact from Essay Mills. We will then report the account or company contacting you to QQI, keeping your details anonymous.

For more information about academic integrity and contract cheating, complete the lesson below. Answer the questions at the end of the lesson to receive a certificate.

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) is generally defined as computer systems or machines that simulate human intelligence processes, including translation, speech recognition, visual perception, and writing. Many of us engage with artificial intelligence on a daily basis when we use applications such as facial recognition on our devices, use Siri/Alexa/Cortana voice assistants, use suggested routes Google Maps, or use search engine suggestions amongst other things. 

Some artificial intelligence tools are designed to paraphrase or edit text and even generate new text, images, or videos. This is a subset of AI known as generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). GenAI may be used in different ways across contexts, and it can be a useful tool, but use of it is not always appropriate in your academic work. Remember that the content these tools produce is not always accurate and can contain bias. You have responsibility for your own work and for developing your own voice so it is important that you do not rely too heavily on these tools.

• You should never use these tools as a way to bypass the expected learning from the course.
• It is important that you check with your lecturer or tutor what their expectations are around the use of AI.
• If you do use these tools, you always acknowledge or cite your use of them in order to distinguish the work you have completed yourself from what you have used these for. 

Using these tools in inappropriate ways and/or not acknowledging your use of them is a form of academic misconduct. If you are in doubt about whether or not you can use them, or how to cite them, always check with your lecturer or tutor.

Understanding Academic Misconduct

Academic misconduct is defined as "any action, or attempted action that undermines academic integrity and may result in an unfair advantage or disadvantage for any member of the academic community or wider society" (NAIN,  Lexicon of Common Terms). These actions can take many forms, and can sometimes occur inadvertantly, so it is important to develop an understanding of various types of academic misconduct and the University's policies and regulations.

For more information on UCC's policies, take a look at UCC's Procedures & Regulations regarding plagiarism and examinations. If you are a postgraduate student, you can find information and procedures specific to you, including a code of conduct for research integrity, here.  

For a quick overview of some common forms of academic misconduct, see below, or check out our Academic Misconduct Quick Guide.