David Nichols
ECPY 204
Professor Slotkin
9/20/15
Contracted and Institutional Cheating in British School System
In this article two types of cheating that have been on the rise over the past four
years in British are talked about. One type of cheating is plagiarism and specifically paying for
papers through academic companies that advertise plagiarism free papers for a price. Adams
(2015) noted an example of this type of cheating when a company offered to write a 4,000 word
dissertation for a student in a week for 480 Euros. This rise in “contracted cheating” can be
credited to the fact that 40,000 students at the university level have been disciplined for
plagiarism over the past four years (Adams, 2015). Adams (2015) stated that “Of the 40,000
students disciplined for plagiarism, 400 were expelled or excluded from higher education, while
12,000 had marks deducted, affecting their final degree classification in many cases” (p.1).
Students are looking for a way to get around the technology that detects plagiarism like Turnitin
and these companies are providing that help. The second type of cheating that is addressed in this
article is another type of plagiarism that is done by the teachers in the British school system. This
type of plagiarism is done by teachers to help struggling students in order to gain higher overall
school grades and earn national recognition. Adams (2015) noted that in one secondary school
that was judged as being “outstanding by Ofsted”, a teacher said that students had been ordered
to copy coursework directly out of the textbook by a senior members of the staff. In another case
a student’s paper that was turned in with no punctuation was completed by their teacher for a
higher grade. The increase of cheating can be attributed to the increased pressure of school heads
on teachers to get higher grades out of students to receive national recognition, and the pressure
from teachers is trickled down to the students who are finding ways to get higher grades and
some are cheating to do it (Adams, 2015).
Works Cited
Adams, Richard (2015, June 14) Cheating found to be rife in British schools and universities.
Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/jun/15/cheating-rife-in-ukeducation-system-dispatches-investigation-shows