A former universities minister who is trying to outlaw essay mills says students are being blackmailed and exploited by contract cheating companies that employ “influencers” on campus.
The firms have normalised cheating in universities and even schools and pay students to suck others into the “dark, criminal underworld”, according to the Conservatives’ Chris Skidmore.
Introducing a bill to outlaw the companies, he told MPs that the number of outfits providing paid-for essays had proliferated to nearly 1,000, with some students using technology to cheat in real-time assessments. He wants it to become a crime to operate such companies, as it is in Australia, New Zealand and Ireland, but says that students should not be prosecuted.
Skidmore said: “The number of essay-mill companies has increased by
