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The Department of Education is planning to introduce laws to prosecute “essay mill” companies who offer to write students’ assignments in exchange for money. The move is a response to mounting concern over the practice which allows students to circumvent their college’s plagiarism detection systems. The use of these services is not easily detected as software used by universities only detects where students have copied from previously published academic texts. He said the new guidelines would be developed in consultation with providers, students and other relevant parties, and would be informed by recent UK research and experience.

The Universities and Science Minister demanded tough new penalties for university students who use essay mills – websites that provide custom written essays – and called on university and student bodies to do more to address the growth of such services. The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education has also been told to take action against the online advertising of these services and to work with international agencies to deal with this problem.

For the first time, students caught cheating could be criminalised amid fears tens of thousands are buying dissertations from websites – a trend ministers say threatens the quality of British university degrees. Universities watchdog the Quality Assurance Agency said hundreds of “essay mills” are charging up to £6,750 for writing a PhD dissertation. Last year the agency published a report into the scale of the issue, which revealed essay services were available at a cost ranging from £15 to thousands of pounds, depending on essay length and complexity.

Several Egyptian universities have changed their examination systems in an attempt to curb mass cheating. Academic institutions in the country have in recent years complained about widespread cheating, blaming it on a test system based on rote learning and the large numbers of students admitted into universities each year. In a bid to improve the situation, higher education authorities have recently announced the replacement of the traditional exam system with another based on multiple-choice questions.