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Contributors offer their thoughts on the universities watchdog calling for a crackdown on essay plagiarism sites. They offer various solutions to this increasingly common issue, including making the offer of such services illegal, reducing the number of assessment tasks students are required to complete, putting the focus on classroom exams rather than essays, and enabling teachers to have a more accurate knowledge of student’s capabilities so that they are able to spot work that is not of that student’s usual standard.

More than 30 fake universities have been shut down by the Government following a crackdown on worthless degrees, after a website in China was found selling degree certificates from dozens of UK universities for £500 each. However, the UK is powerless to act against roughly 80 per cent of offenders because they are based outside the country and cannot be prosecuted, according to Prospects, the graduate careers expert. As the project starts its second year, it will focus on dealing with offenders at a local level through international collaboration with the equivalent authorities overseas, HEDD said.

1,382 students from two British universities have been investigated for cheating since 2010. Most of those cases are of plagiarism. Most plagiarized work came from media and film students, and the Informatics department – which includes computer sciences.

The University of Wales will cease to exist after mounting a series of damaging revelations. An investigation revealed last week that overseas students at Rayat London College, in Hounslow, were sold diploma exam answers in advance of taking the test.