The Essay Mill (Prohibition) Bill

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A few weeks ago, myself and the leads from the Academic Integrity Collective met with the Former Universities Minister, Chris Skidmore MP, alongside sector representatives from SUs, Universities and sector bodies about the Essay Mills (Prohibition) Bill that was being proposed.

Our Key Asks:

-Ban Essay Mills and Contract Cheating services
-Protect students who have fallen victim to these services (non-criminalisation/non-penalisation)
-Tackle and resource the solutions to the causes of contract cheating

Here are some key parts of his speech:

" I heard tales of students being blackmailed by these companies after having paid for essays, with threats of being reported to their universities or employers, and stories of international students being targeted on Facebook, Twitter...

and WhatsApp and encouraged to sign up to academic support services before they started university without even realising that what they were doing was wrong."

"...Time and again in this dark underworld of essay mills and the companies that seek to make a profit...

out of the insecurity and desperation of students, the common theme that emerged was of exploitation. There is the exploitation of students, particularly vulnerable students under pressure to do well in their studies..."

"I wish to make it clear that my Bill would not seek to criminalise students themselves for using essay mills. Instead, I propose that universities need to look at new strategies for creating second chances and educating students about their mistakes..."

"...we must also be tough on the causes of contract cheating, which would not exist if there were not a market to exploit"

#BanEssayMills #BetterByU
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