cheap assignment writing service uk

cheap assignment writing service uk

Exploring the Impact and Ethics of Cheap Assignment Writing Services in the UK

1. Introduction to the Phenomenon of Cheap Assignment Writing Services

In light of two consistent and interdisciplinary netnographic studies conducted by the authors on Essay Mills Pseudomarket, it is noted that increasingly many other custom colleges, university or post-graduate course assignment tendering websites, including many international sites and many low-rent operators but also a number of UK-based operations, have also emerged. The overwhelming majority of these operations offer their supply capabilities across international boundaries, catering largely for the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand student populations. On average, approximately 50 sites of this nature were noted, of which some had several thousand pages of content. A survey of 500 undergraduate students at three UK institutions found that 7% reported use of these services at least once, albeit this rises to 12% for second-generation students and 10% when only final year students are considered. The purpose of this paper, in part, is to encourage discussion as to the significance of developing a rounded profile of these organizations/operations; how they operate, their employment profile, their customer base, and the effect of the cheap sub-contracting of course assignments.

The practice of commissioning custom-made college or university assignments from third-party online websites has significantly increased in recent years. Despite these services being relatively expensive and therefore mostly out of reach of domestic students, several cheap assignment writing services offering similar services for lower budgets have also been established in more recent years. This paper seeks to provide a preliminary empirical overview for the extent to which these cheap assignment writing services are operating and are used, but also to encourage debate between staff, students, and academics as to the impact, and indeed ethical stance these services hold. This paper therefore distinctly advocates for concerted qualitative and quantitative research which provides evidence of the wider impact on student culture and social capital.

2. Factors Influencing the Proliferation of Cheap Assignment Writing Services in the UK

Though providers of cheap assignment writing services are diverse in their range, funds, and how they operate, many owe part of their success to their pricing – low prices and buying in bulk. While the ‘low-cost’ model educational business venture is increasingly profitable, the use of ‘cheap labour’ is questionable and has raised concerns. But how cheap is it? This report will investigate how cheap is cheap, by assessing the price and quality and the costs of cheap labour, as well as the strategic factors affecting the low ‘price’ determinant of ethical implications of this proliferating phenomenon.

There are a number of factors that contribute to the availability of cheap assignment writing services in the UK. In any set of circumstances, any number of these factors can affect British student demand for them. Firstly, UK assignment writing services are desirable because the demand for them exists, and thus, naturally, there is consumer demand to be fulfilled. In part, services continue to flourish because the market is shaped by complex pricing dynamics and incentives to produce the cheapest products possible. Other factors could be argued to be contributory regarding the spread of essay writing services, such as technological advances providing easier access to these sites and companies or the increasing acceptance of the use of essay writing sites, which makes it more feasible and less stigmatizing for a new customer to use them. Many of us would argue that prospective customers are put off by concerns about the quality of writing, for example, or simply for ethical reasons.

3. Ethical Considerations and Academic Integrity in the Context of Cheap Assignment Writing Services

The written assessment can have educational value, sometimes not only to assess the applicants’ knowledge alone but also their self-demonstration, organizational aspects, and ingenuity, artistic or rhetorical talents. A UK higher education assignment is acknowledged by test regulators and universities for its oral report. In comparative situations, in circumstances of competition from other students, a composition that is not one’s work humiliates those who are honest and diminishes their similarly achieved degree. It may give such students an unfair and unjust advantage and sometimes enable them to engage in communal activities and at the workplace, inclusive of academic and professional collaboration. Some tensions have arisen about the duty of care and responsibility between the providers’ and the receivers’ ends. However, let no confrontation arise, ethical precepts are clear, the providers, including international companies or sedentary staff, must ensure for someone in Gibraltar, Romania, or London that their services are not misused for unethical purposes.

The use of low-priced assignment writing services in higher education raises significant ethical considerations. A crucial aspect of tertiary teaching and learning in the UK is how to appraise and/or develop students’ intellectual honesty and what issues may emerge when some learners decide to deceive themselves. The focus of this piece is on the use of assignment writing services rather than ‘collusion’, broadly understood to include issues of ghostwriting by a third party. Here, a lower price threshold barely makes their usage acceptable somehow. Soon, EdTech’s general impact will become a whole different norm when the use of cheaper feeds in. Thus, unless ethical concerns and professional integrity outlooks students’ decision-making practices, there will have to be an urgent segue into a compulsory education policy landscape and/or student induction tutorial.

4. Quality Control and Customer Experience in the Market of Cheap Assignment Writing Services

Customers will leave comments on elements of the service such as delivery time, accuracy in adhering to instructions, and originality of content. Hence, these platforms are based on feedback economy – they are essentially marketplaces for the exchange of feedback. One important aspect of such a service that drives its success is the community of fellow reviewers. These can, in some cases, act as experts and provide opinions about the value of the service and overall experience. Insets such as ‘fellow graduates’ give the impression that there is a like-minded community of buyers who have already used the service. Such information may provide good faith and reassurance of receiving a positive experience. But are such services really authentic and entirely trustworthy?

Customer feedback describes testimonials, which are a common sight on these websites and may be fabricated or tampered with. Service ratings and reviews are common too. For a customer, a review will show up as an overall rating or the number of stars the product has received. These are usually at a position where they may be easy to skip but always come as part of marketing.

Quality control in course and academic work help businesses offering services in the UK is not regulated by any institution. Hence, services are evaluated on the basis of customer satisfaction. There are no service standards or ways to compare the quality offered by £5, £10, and £20 services. A few services provide a preview of an assignment to let the students have a look at it before deciding whether to buy or not.

5. Regulatory Framework and Future Trends in the UK Assignment Writing Services Industry

Market Trends and Future Outlook We end this report with a few thoughts on the future. In particular, with interest rates continuing to rise and inflation forecasting to fall back, it is possible that students’ engagement with assignment writing services might rise. We heard much chatter about the extreme mental health pressures that university students find themselves under, which seems also to drive the appetite for such services, despite the extra premium placed on mental health among affluent students when they consider life values. That said, this sector seems unlikely to proliferate in the long term due to an expected increase in international and domestic regulation and compliance costs as governments turn their gaze toward the activities of providers of higher education. We expect only legitimate institutions to be able to survive the inevitable cull.

The only university policy or guideline that holds any tangible sway over power relations in this trade is a code of practice, which undertakes to “discourage the use of these [writing] services and support students to achieve higher standards in the conduct of their academic work”. However, a keyword search for “essay”, “dissertation” and “cheating” in the same database yields official judgments by the sector’s ministerial authority against universities that have flaunted official guidelines in offering to use plagiarism detection software to students purchasing these services to check if any unattributed content has indeed been forged. None of these universities, however, has been accused of associating with assignment writing services to promote the software’s sale.

The proliferation of academic writing services bypasses a governing regulatory framework to address ethical and legal issues in the delivery of these services. At the time of writing, there is no explicit law that would categorically ban, enable or limit the operations of academic writing services and similar websites. The OIA does not exercise control over the businesses it adjudicates with, and professional misconduct complaints, which only a few commissions can investigate and consequentially take down an awarded degree, are the primary way to sanction fraudulent behavior. Furthermore, no proposals addressing academic writing services are currently on the legislative table in the UK; the only reference to this market is found in an amendment to the Higher Education and Research Act which will force companies selling essays to UK-based students to pledge to them that they will not use fraudulent means to secure undergraduate or postgraduate degrees from a UK degree-awarding body.

3.1 Regulatory Framework