UK Universities Heads Request Banning On Essay Mills

Heads of universities around the United Kingdom are trying to get the government to ban on essay-writing firms. A letter sent by 46 educational executives to the State for Education Secretary, The Right Honorable Damian Hind MP requested to end what so called "essay mills" in the UK.

An issue is worsening day by day

In the letter:

The executive director of the university require limiting these actions, including forbidenning essay mills as well as advertising for these companies. Plus, there was a petition posted on the website of the National Assembly and the United Kingdom Government calling for terminating this "fraud" service.

According to the petition, the essay writing services provide the required dissertations to meet the requirements of the course they attend, pricing from hundreds of pounds to over £6,750 for a PhD thesis. This reduces the credibility and prestige of top universities and is not fair to students who do their own math. But in fact, these "cheating" services are still legal.

There are more than 100 essay writing sites curently running. And the petition has obtained almost 5,000 signatures. We expect to get the answer from the government when it reaches 10,000 signatures.

Legitimacy remains controversial

Sam Gyimah, universities minister, posted a tweet on his Twitter showing support for curbing essay mills. He said the legislation solution were still in consideration but universities should have other solutions to the problem.

Moreover, according to Gyimah, it is crucial that universities not promote students to choose the easy way out. Gyimah wrote:

The Frontiers in Education journal published a research that in the last four years, for every seven graduates  there is one that have hired thesis writing service. On the contrary, there are quite a number of people who believe that the way to prevent essay fraud is to inspire students about their courses.

This is still a daunting question, banning is not the best way to prevent this incident in long-term compared to inspiring students.