Contract cheating is when a student engages another person to complete work for them, and then submits the work as their own, regardless if money was paid or not.
Cheating is never the right answer.
Did you know commercial academic cheating services are illegal in Australia? If you use cheating services, you could:
- fail your subject or course
- be suspended from university
- lose your visa
- lose your professional accreditation
- be blackmailed by cheating service operators.
It can be easy to justify cheating when life stress takes over.
Take Daisy’s story for example.. Daisy has been stressed with family and work stuff. She has broken up with her partner of two years and has a final essay worth 30% of her final grade due in a few days. Daisy is feeling overwhelmed and doesn’t know where to start. While looking for inspiration on the internet, an ad pops up. On this occasion she notes that the ad claims to have professional tutors that can help with assignment writing. She clicks the link and it takes her to the company webpage. The site looks legit and Daisy chats with the info-bot, Chelsea. Chelsea says they can help her write her assignment! $200 later she is signed up and has an assignment ready to submit with a day to spare. Fast forward three weeks when Daisy receives an email from the UNSW Conduct and Integrity Office. Her assignment has been identified for plagiarism and concerns had been raised that she obtained assistance from a third party. Daisy denies doing anything wrong because she cannot bring herself to tell the truth for fear of getting into trouble so an investigation is carried out. This detects issues in Daisy’s other courses for this trimester and the one before. Daisy is found to have contract cheated in six courses and is issued a strong penalty - a fail for the whole course/subject for those six courses and a two-term suspension from the University. For Daisy, the stress, loss of integrity, the money and loss of marks was not worth cheating for.
If it’s not your words, it's not your work. Cheating is never the right answer.
If you’re new to study at an Australian higher education institution, please note that academic integrity standards might be different from where you’ve studied before. Make sure you understand your institution’s academic integrity policies and practices and follow them during your course. Doing this will help you to uphold your own academic integrity and that of your institution.
If you are having trouble with your assignments, contact your lecturer or tutor for help in the first instance or reach out to the UNSW academic support services at the link below.