Investigation Shows Cheating College Students Are Paying Kenyans to Complete College Work
A CBS News investigation has discovered that American college students are outsourcing classwork to Kenyans overseas who are being paid thousands of dollars a month to do assignments, write essays and even complete entire college degrees for students.
The essay-for-hire has been going on for many years and is known as “contract cheating,” which has expanded as online education has become more common. Contract cheating is a form of academic dishonesty in which students hire a third-party to complete their assignments. The practice is against the law in 17 states but has yet to be made a law on the federal level. In Kenya although approx. 50,000 people graduate from universities each year, many are still unemployed due to economic infrastructure and the country’s relative sidelining from global industry sectors like technology, manufacturing, and finance. Therefore, Kenyan graduates turn to the contract cheating industry to cover their bills.
Students usually pay between $20 and $50 per page to have their essays written by Kenyan writers who sometimes subcontract the work out to other writers, paying as low as $5 a page. The writers complete schoolwork in various subjects engineering, history, and psychology.
The parties meet through websites like Essay JedII, which offer legitimate services like tutoring assistance. In a statement, the website told CBS News it was “unpleasantly surprised” to find out the platform was being used in this way. The company stated “any delivered products are considered as research services and/or original samples and should not be used as completed papers for further submission in educational establishments, however, we can not control or limit its further usage as the consumer owns the copyright.”
Kenyan man identified in the report as William, although that is not his real name, earns over $2,000 a month competing school work for students. He told CBS one of his clients, for whom he is working on a master’s degree, also promised him he’d be paid to complete the work for his doctorate as well.
The report confirmed that the college login account information belonged to students enrolled at universities. William told CBS News that when a student received a 97 percent on an essay he wrote, he was asked by the student to “lower it down” to match the student’s actual performance level.
Philemon, a Kenyan Science researcher, told The World in 2020 that he started writing for American and Australian students in 2017 and makes approx. $1,000 a month.
“You have to make sure he gets an A, so that in the future he will refer his or her friends to you,” Philemon said.
Thomas Lancaster, a professor at Imperial College London who studies the industry, told The World Kenya is “at the top of the list” when it comes to where writers engaged in contract cheating.
“There are incredibly qualified people in Kenya. Very high levels of English. Very able to write essays quickly and when they want to, to a high standard,” he said.
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