Australia Proposes Bill to Fight Academic Dishonesty

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Australia proposed a bill to step up its fight against contract cheating or the act in which students pay someone to do their schoolwork, such as essays and online tests. Under the bill, those who offer or promote academic cheating services can be imprisoned for two years and pay fines of up to A$210,000 (more than US$140,000). Upon the proposed law’s release to the public, some people raised concerns that it might punish students and their friends or family who help them with schoolwork. The government addressed this fear by assuring the public that the bill targets only paid cheating services. The growing popularity of contract cheating was first exposed in 2014 by two Australian media companies. At that time, the most prominent contract cheating provider among students was MyMaster. Since then, the country started to strengthen efforts to discourage commercial cheating. However, instead of dying down, problems with contract cheating have persisted as service providers continue to increase and become more organized and sophisticated. Education minister Dan Tehan said that such services are taking advantage of students’ weaknesses and damaging the reputation of Australian education. Cheating services have gone after international students because some of them have difficulties with English. Once the bill is approved by the parliament, Australia’s Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency will be commissioned to investigate suspected contract cheating services. The agency said that it supports the government’s proposed bill and is already planning to collaborate with international bodies to eradicate the problem.