An associate dean of academic services spends a lot of time studying, lamenting and worrying about cheating in universities, but a Montreal-based online service that propels the activity to a new level made even her wince. The website unemployedprofessors.com has teachers writing papers for students. "So you can play while we make your papers go away" is its tag line.

The State Board of Higher Education is working to tighten admission policies for international students after an audit found some Chinese student transcripts submitted to Dickinson State University were fakes.

In the technical world of bio-informatics, two University of Kansas computer scientists were riding high in 2009 having published three articles with an international audience. Portions of all three of their articles had been lifted from other scientists' work. The entire summarizing statement in their presentation had come from someone else's journal article.

The detection of wholesale cheating in college applications is on the rise due to the use of Turnitin for Admissions, an anti-plagiarism database service that compares student essays to an immense archive of other writings. Around the country, more than 100 colleges and universities have adopted it, mainly in graduate divisions, although Stanford University is among the dozen schools starting to use it for freshman applicants this year.

According to the most recent report of Accredibase, the UK-based background screening company Verifile Limited, there was a staggering 48% increase in the number of known degree or diploma mills operating worldwide last year. It identified more than 2,500 bogus institutions across all regions, but primarily in North America and Europe.

A tell-all blog post by a New York University professor claims that more than 20 business students at the elite private university plagiarized portions of the work they submitted for one of his classes. Criticism by students in their evaluation of the professor resulted in a financial penalty for him, he says.

In his years of teaching, chemistry senior lecturer said he has witnessed numerous forms of misconduct, discovering students listening to lectures, studying note cards and accessing course material on bathroom breaks during exams.

Before assigning term papers for literature composition class at Gavilan College in Gilroy, Steve Schessler takes time to discuss something that has tormented teachers from the beginning of time – or at least the beginning of homework assignments. The subject he broaches is plagiarism, and a show of hands reveals that his students are not exactly clear on the concept.