According to the Head of the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA), essay mills have become “public health and safety issue”, affecting all of society. As a result of students cheating in their degrees, there will be people entering into professions who are not qualified to carry out the work that is required. This practice is spreading now to the sixth-formers going to essay mills to get through their coursework at school.

Allegations of academic fraud have been made against nearly 20 alternative higher education providers in London in recent months, the head of the UK’s standards watchdog has said. Warning that fraud and malpractice now pose a “real challenge” to traditional quality assurance in higher education, the chief executive of the Quality Assurance Agency, said that his organisation had “recently received and, in some cases, investigated allegations about admissions, malpractice, academic fraud and the falsification of evidence in 19 alternative providers in London”.

A recent investigation into plagiarism in higher education by the Quality Assurance Agency found hundreds of companies are regularly producing papers for students to pass off as their own. And only last year, an advertising campaign saw posters for an essay mill prominently placed around the London Underground – particularly at tube stops near university campuses. Often involving students paying hundreds of pounds for written-to-order papers, this behaviour became known as “contract cheating” after research published in 2006. It remains one of the major challenges in preserving academic integrity across higher education.

The independent quality body for higher education in the United Kingdom, the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education or QAA, has issued new guidance on how to combat 'contract cheating', where students pay a company or individual to produce work that they then pass off as their own. The companies involved – typically using a website to promote themselves and receive orders – are often dubbed ‘essay mills’, but services provided may include not just essays or other assignments, but conducting research and impersonation in exams. While there is a common perception that students studying in another language are more likely to cheat than domestic students, there is currently “no UK data to support this view”.

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.

An Education Minister says the University of Wales has let down higher education in Wales and brought the nation "into disrepute". His criticism comes after a watchdog's report told the university to review its worldwide college links, which include in particular a college in Bangkok said to be operating illegally.