As we’re on the cusp of a new term, new year and into the new decade, I thought I’d once again highlight the plague of tertiary (and possibly secondary) education: the assignment ghost writers. I get follows and requests on Instagram and even here on LinkedIn offering their services as though they are bona-fide business models, who offer their (paid) “help” to students who are either too lazy or not quite good enough for university.

Make no mistake, this is blatant cheating, and these “services” are slowly destroying the value of university degrees. If they are not stopped, they will damage the integrity of many universities around the world. Some countries have made these sites illegal and will prosecute when possible, though as many of them are run from the Subcontinent, that isn’t always easy.

Our jobs as educators is to deter our students from using them by emphasising the damage they do to their peers and their universities. What many students don’t realise is that there are ghost writing sites out there that blackmail students once they have used their service, thereby trapping users into further payments in order to keep their cheated degrees.

We can usually tell those students have used such sites, as the ghosted assignment work varies drastically from that which we see from day to day in the classroom. I’d love to hear suggestions from other educators to see how we can curtail this dodgy trade, and I would also like to hear from students who would like to help stamp the practice out.