Contract cheating advertisements: what they tell us about international students’ attitudes to academic integrity

Abstract

At a time when contract cheating advertisements are proliferating both online and offline, an analysis of their format, wording and approach furnishes critical information for educational providers about the attitudes of international students towards academic honesty. This analysis, in company with the available research literature, points to particular concerns regarding international students, especially those who are undertaking business-related degrees. There is much disquiet on the part of universities generally about the failure of such students to engage in the academic discourse socialisation process and so distancing themselves from the academic community, as well as flaunting academic protocols which uphold the credibility of their university degrees. In light of the challenging nature of contract cheating detection, a comprehensive overview of pedagogical responses is discussed including anti-contract cheating software, the greater use of in-class assessments and a return to more personalised face-to-face classroom teaching.

Keywords:

• Contract cheating
• international students
• academic integrity
• business ethics
• academic discourse socialisation

Acknowledgments

The author wishes to thank Dr. Agnes Bosanquet and Dr. Neil Harrison for their insights and recommendations.

Notes

1. For the purpose of this paper, the term ‘international students’ will be limited to those international students who do not have English as a first language.

2. http://www.yourtutor.com.au/.

3. https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/studysmart/home/find_help/yourtutor.

4. https://www.ecu.edu.au/community-engagement/services/yourtutor/overview.

5. https://federation.edu.au/current-students/learning-and-study/online-and-after-hours-support/after-hours-tutoring.

6. http://www.uowcollege.edu.au/current-students/yourtutor/index.html.

7. http://w3.unisa.edu.au/study-skills/yourtutor.html.

8. https://www.coursera.org/sydney.

9. https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/about/news-events-and-notices/news/news-2014/10/mooc-on-academic-integrity-will-help-students-avoid-cheating.html.

10. http://students.mq.edu.au/events/2016/07/19/new_assessment_policy_in_place_from_session_2/.

11. http://www.thebfo.org/home.