Oxford students among 'worst culprits' for buying essays

From the The Oxford Times, first published Friday 4th Aug 2006.

UNIVERSITY students in Oxford are among the most frequent visitors to a website selling specially-tailored essays.

Up to 70 undergraduates in the city every day are visiting the website of a firm which offers a leg-up with coursework.

Students are paying internet firm ukessays.com £240 for a bespoke 2,000-word essay which is "guaranteed a 2:1" and delivered in five days, or £1,200 for a 10,000-word dissertation delivered within ten days.

Ukessays.com, which is just one of more than a hundred companies to offer such a service, has a team of 3,500 writers who have supplied more than 15,000 people with tailor-made essays since the business began in 2003.

The firm's owner, Barclay Littlewood, estimates that his company can make between four and ten sales in Oxford each week "during busy times".

Mr Littlewood said: "Oxford University provides us with the third highest number of online visitors of any university in England.

"I would say we get between 65 and 70 visitors (to the website) a day from Oxford University and Oxford Brookes."

An Oxford University spokesman denied plagiarism was a problem at the university.

She said: "Just because students look on the website does not mean they are buying the essays. Out of all the universities in the UK, Oxford University will have the lowest incidents of plagiarism, because of the assessment tutorial system.

"Students have to produce essays once a week for their tutorials but these essays are not assessed, they are to facilitate learning. Undergraduates are assessed mainly through exams, not coursework.

"And if a student did cheat and pay for an essay it would be obvious as they have to discuss the ideas in the essay during the tutorial.

"Our tutors are trained to spot plagiarism and it will not be tolerated."

Jude Carroll, deputy director of the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at Oxford Brookes University, said essays bought from websites had been handed in by students.

Cambridge University students were the most frequent visitors to the Ukessays.com website.

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