essay writing illegal uk

Cookies on GOV.UK

We use some essential cookies to make this website work.

We’d like to set additional cookies to understand how you use GOV.UK, remember your settings and improve government services.

We also use cookies set by other sites to help us deliver content from their services.

You have accepted additional cookies. You can change your cookie settings at any time.

You have rejected additional cookies. You can change your cookie settings at any time.

• Education, training and skills
• Further and higher education, skills and vocational training

Essay mills to be banned under plans to reform post-16 education

Unscrupulous ‘essay mills’ to be criminalised as part of the Skills and Post-16 Education Bill

Services offering to provide students with essays for money, known as essay mills, are to be made illegal under plans announced by the government today (5 October).

The government intends to make it a criminal offence to provide, arrange or advertise these cheating services for financial gain to students taking a qualification at any institution in England providing post-16 education including universities.

The move is one of a number of measures being introduced to the Skills and Post-16 Education Bill , to transform the skills and training landscape and help level up opportunities across the country.

The law will also be changed to give equality to technical education in careers advice in schools, so all pupils understand the wide range of career routes and training available to them, such as apprenticeships, T Levels or traineeships, not just a traditional academic route.

Minister for Skills Alex Burghart said:

Essay mills are completely unethical and profit by undermining the hard work most students do. We are taking steps to ban these cheating services. We have also announced a new measure to make sure all young people receive broader careers guidance so everyone can get the advice that’s right for them.

Banning essay mills will help to safeguard the academic integrity and standards of post-16 and higher education in England and protect students from falling prey to the deceptive marketing techniques of contract cheating services.

This follows a number of steps already taken to tackle unscrupulous essay mills, including government working alongside the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education, Universities UK and the National Union of Students to produce guidance for institutions on how to combat the threat of contract cheating and guidance for students to make them better aware of the consequences, sending a clear message that these services are not legitimate.

Additional measures being introduced to the Bill include enabling sixth form colleges with a religious faith designation to become a 16-19 Academy, boosting diversity in 16-19 academies and allowing more faith school providers to open 16-19 academies with a religious character.

The Bill, which will enter its report stage in the House of Lord on 12 October, underpins the government’s transformation of post-16 education and skills as set out in the Skills for Jobs White Paper . The reforms outlined in the Bill will help to create more routes into skilled employment in sectors the economy needs such as engineering, digital, clean energy and manufacturing, so more people can secure well-paid jobs in their local areas, levelling up the nation and supporting communities to thrive.

Share this page

The following links open in a new tab

• Share on Facebook (opens in new tab)
• Share on Twitter (opens in new tab)

Updates to this page

Is this page useful.

• Yes this page is useful
• No this page is not useful

Help us improve GOV.UK

Don’t include personal or financial information like your National Insurance number or credit card details.

To help us improve GOV.UK, we’d like to know more about your visit today. Please fill in this survey (opens in a new tab) .

Blog The Education Hub

This blog post was published under the 2015-2024 conservative administration.

https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2022/04/28/essay-mills-are-now-illegal-skills-minister-calls-on-internet-service-providers-to-crack-down-on-advertising/

Essay mills are now illegal - Skills Minister calls on internet service platforms to crack down on advertising

Skills Minister Alex Burghart has written to internet service platforms to make sure they know that essay mills - which facilitate cheating by helping academic writing, often by appearing to be legitimate - have been made illegal and to call on their support in making sure they can no longer advertise online. Here you can read that letter.

The Skills and Post-16 Education Bill has become law. Through this act, the Government has legislated for landmark reforms that will transform post-16 education and skills, including criminalising essay mills.

As you may know, Essay Mills are online platforms that facilitate contract cheating. Contract cheating happens when a third party completes work for a student which is passed off by the student as their own work. Many essay mill companies use marketing techniques which indicate they are offering ‘legitimate’ academic writing support for students. Reports also indicate that some essay mills seek to blackmail students who use these services. It is right that we have legislated against these insidious crimes.

It is now a criminal offence to provide or arrange for another person to provide contract cheating services for financial gain to students taking a qualification at a post-16 institution or sixth form in England, enrolled at a higher education provider in England and any other person over compulsory school age who has been entered for a regulated qualification at a place in England.

Similarly, it is now an offence for a person to make arrangements for an advertisement in which that person offers, or is described as being available or competent, to provide or arrange for another person to provide a cheating service. Importantly, the offence centres around the act of advertising to students, and for the offence to be committed it does not need to be seen by its target demographic.

There is now a strengthened, collaborative effort across the sector to tackle essay mills and we want you to be part of this campaign. Platforms such as yourself play an integral role in helping us to make the most effective use of the legislation; marketing and advertising are the lifeblood of any successful industry. We are aware that high numbers of essay mills have used your platform to promote their services to students in the past, paying for advertising to promote their companies. Essay mills are now illegal entities, and you should not carry their advertising. It is no longer a moral question; you will be facilitating an illegal activity. I ask you to do everything in your power to prevent the advertising these unscrupulous practices.

Removing essay mill access to online marketing will seriously hamper their efforts to target vulnerable students and I implore you to do so following the introduction of this legislation. We must now all work together to capitalise on it.

I hope that in writing to you today I have underlined the urgency of this issue and the important role that companies like yours play in stamping out essay mills once and for all and am sure I can be confident in your support.

Thank you for your support with this important matter.

Tags: cheating , essay mills , internet service platforms

Sharing and comments

Share this page, related content and links, about the education hub.

The Education Hub is a site for parents, pupils, education professionals and the media that captures all you need to know about the education system. You’ll find accessible, straightforward information on popular topics, Q&As, interviews, case studies, and more.

Please note that for media enquiries, journalists should call our central Newsdesk on 020 7783 8300. This media-only line operates from Monday to Friday, 8am to 7pm. Outside of these hours the number will divert to the duty media officer.

Members of the public should call our general enquiries line on 0370 000 2288.

Sign up and manage updates

Follow us on social media, search by date.

Comments and moderation policy

Essay-Writing Services To Be Made Illegal In England

Contributor.

Essay-writing services, known as essay mills, are to be made illegal under plans announced by the government on 5 October 2021.

The government intends to make it a criminal offence to provide, arrange, or advertise any essay-writing services for financial gain to students taking a qualification at any institution in England providing post-16 education, including universities.

The move follows a number of steps already taken by the government to protect academic integrity from the effect of essay mills. In 2018, 46 university vice-chancellors wrote a joint letter calling for essay-writing services to banned, and the government worked with the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education, Universities UK and the National Union of Students to produce guidance on how institutions could counter the threat of contract cheating, and for students to make them better aware of the consequences (which might include removal from their course of study or expulsion from their place of study). The latest efforts to outlaw essay mills and other ‘contract cheating' has been welcomed by members of all parties and across the education industry, and hailed as safeguarding the academic integrity and standards of post-16 and higher education in England as well as protecting young people during their studies.

The  Skills and Post-16 Education Bill  (the ‘ Bill ') introduces this measure as a means to protect students from the “deceptive marking techniques of contract cheating services”. The Bill also aims to help level up opportunities across the country by transforming the existing educational landscape: alternative training and career routes, such as technical education, apprenticeships, T Levels or traineeships, are to be emphasised and given equal status alongside the traditional academic route (as set out in the  Skills for Jobs White Paper ).

Essay mills – given that they profit from committing academic fraud – are largely considered to be unethical, though they remain lawful in most countries. The UK follows in the footsteps of Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Ireland by taking action against contract cheating.

Ghostwriting services are active globally, and often target students who are studying in a second language. The rise in demand for such services are likely the result of increased competition for university places, especially where coursework and open-book exams contribute to pivotal final grades. Ironically, these services encourage a lack of scholarship that sets students up poorly for further education.

The online learning environment that developed as a result of stay-at-home mandates during the Covid-19 pandemic meant that students became increasingly vulnerable to the lures of essay-writing services. As campus welfare and support became less accessible to students working remotely from home and motivation throughout the academic year dwindled as Zoom-fatigue set in, levels of online cheating exploded: the Quality Assurance Agency estimated in 2021 that there are at least 932 sites in operation in the UK, up from 904 in December 2020, 881 in October 2020 and 635 in June 2018. More brazenly, there are examples of essay mill service providers taking advantage of the difficult circumstances faced by students during the pandemic by offering 2-4-1 deals and other special offers to ‘help' students navigate a difficult and unusual few academic years.

While the proposals in the Bill are welcome, the measures do not amount to a full solution to online cheating. The International Journal for Educational Integrity has highlighted the increasing number of ways in which students wishing to circumvent rules on academic honesty may do so using technology. For example, the use of file-sharing websites to request assistance from others and receive answers to exam questions – in real time and during exam conditions – has risen by an estimated 196% in the year 2020-21 in STEM subjects. The Bill does not extend to Wales or Scotland, for whom education is a devolved matter: essay mills may yet target UK schools and universities and see plenty reason to maintain operations.

Gareth Crossman, head of policy and public affairs at the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education, has touched on the length of the journey ahead, saying: “[the Bill] sends a clear signal but, with well over 1000 essay mills in operation, the sector must continue working together to put them out of business.” Only time will tell whether the measures, when implemented, are effective, and whether the government needs to go further to protect students from predatory academic practices in future.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.

Consumer Protection

Mondaq uses cookies on this website. By using our website you agree to our use of cookies as set out in our Privacy Policy.

Essay writing services now illegal

Under new UK legislation, providing or using professional essay writing services, or 'essay mills', is now a criminal offence. Students have been made aware of this via today's Student News. They have also been advised that using these services directly contravenes the University's code of conduct. If students are found to be using professional writing services, or passing off other people's work as their own, they will face serious disciplinary action. There are a range of resources available to students about  study skills and avoiding plagiarism  on the Oxford Students website. Colleagues are asked to reinforce these messages to students in their parts of the University.

Related links

• Insert some related links here
• or leave this WYSIWYG empty
• if you wish

BACK TO ALL NEWS

‘Unethical’ essay mills to be banned in England under Government plans

Essay mills are set to be banned in England under plans to reform post-16 education.

The Government intends to make it a criminal offence to provide, arrange or advertise essay-writing services for financial gain to university and college students.

Making essay mills illegal under new legislation will help protect students from falling prey to the “deceptive marketing techniques of contract cheating services”, the Department for Education (DfE) has said.

It is one of a number of measures being introduced to the Skills and Post-16 Education Bill – which aims to transform further and technical education.

Careers education in schools will also be strengthened to ensure all pupils have opportunities to learn about all the technical education options available to them – including apprenticeships, T-levels and traineeships.

Essay mills are completely unethical and profit by undermining the hard work most students do

Skills Minister Alex Burghart

Skills Minister Alex Burghart said: “Essay mills are completely unethical and profit by undermining the hard work most students do.

“We are taking steps to ban these cheating services.

“We have also announced a new measure to make sure all young people receive broader careers guidance so everyone can get the advice that’s right for them.”

Essay mills, which are already illegal in some countries, make money by encouraging students to cheat in assessments.

Their services include providing students with ready-made essays to pass off as their own.

The Government hopes banning the services will help to safeguard the academic integrity and standards of post-16 and higher education in England.

It comes after former universities minister Chris Skidmore called for essay mill websites to be outlawed in February this year.

Transfer news LIVE! Man Utd's De Ligt plan after Yoro deal; Calafiori to Arsenal explained; Chelsea latest; Spurs

Matthew McConaughey says he wants to run for office as he slams politics for being like the 'Real Housewives'

First Covid Inquiry report set to expose catalogue of failings during pandemic

Celebrate Art of London’s collaborations with women artists

In June, the Government pledged to work with politicians on proposed legislation around banning essay-writing services.

Tory frontbencher Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay told peers there is a “strong case” to support institutions in dealing with the rising number of essay mills.

The law will also be changed to give equality to technical education in careers advice in schools, so all pupils understand the wide range of routes and training available to them, not just academic routes.

Additional amendments to the Skills and Post-16 Education Bill, which enters its report stage in the House of Lords on October 12, includes allowing more faith school providers to open post-16 academies with a religious character.

A Universities UK (UUK) spokeswoman said: “We welcome this news. UUK has repeatedly called for essay writing services to be made illegal and we have worked together with Government, the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) and other higher education bodies to tackle their use.

“While the use of essay mills by students is rare, all universities have codes of conduct that include severe penalties for students found to be submitting work that is not their own.

“Universities have become increasingly experienced at dealing with such issues and are engaging with students from day-one to underline the implications of cheating and how it can be avoided.”

Gareth Crossman, head of policy and public affairs at the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA), said: “We’re delighted that the DfE has agreed to outlaw these unscrupulous outfits that threaten the integrity of UK higher education and prey on vulnerable students, and hope other UK Governments will also take action.

“This sends a clear signal but, with well over 1000 essay mills in operation, the sector must continue working together to put them out of business.”

A spokesperson for the National Union of Students (NUS) said: “These private companies prey on students’ vulnerabilities and insecurities to make money through exploitation, and never more so than during the pandemic.

“NUS has called on the Government to take action against them in the past, and I hope they are finally listening.

“In the meantime, we would urge universities to put in place academic and pastoral support so that students are never in the position of feeling they have to turn to essay mills in the first place.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

Important notice: Essay writing services now illegal in the UK

Following a government reform, it is now illegal to use and/or provide contract cheating services.

On Thursday 28 April 2022, the Skills and Post-16 Education Bill became law, making it a criminal offence to engage in paid cheating services, often known as essay mills.

Essay mills offer students in Post-16 education plagiarism free essays and assignments in exchange for money.

The government has listened to calls for legislation and intervened to criminalise the provision of, and advertising of, cheating services. This aims to minimise the number of these essay mills in operation and to enhance activity already taking place to detect, deter and address incidents of cheating.

In a letter to Higher Education (HE) providers , Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Skills, Alex Burghart MP said: “Cheating of any kind is unacceptable. It not only threatens to undermine the reputation of our world-class higher education sector, but also devalues the hard work of those who succeed on their own merit.”

The university takes academic offences very seriously. Submitting work that is not your own can lead to expulsion.

We want to ensure that all DMU students are following academic regulations, which we outline  here .

The Centre for Learning and Study Support (CLaSS) team work with undergraduate, postgraduate and research students at DMU to provide support and guidance on a range of areas, such as planning assignments, how to approach critical analysis and how to improve your research and referencing.

You can access the CLaSS services here .

  Search news archive

• Bournemouth
• King's
• University of East Anglia

Essay writing services have now been made illegal in the UK

Confirmed: That diss really isn’t going to write itself

The government has made it illegal for online services to write essays on behalf of students in exchange for cash.

As part of the Skills and Post-16 Education Bill, so-called “essay mills” will be outlawed in the hope of preserving “academic integrity” at university.

Writing in The Times today, minister for skills Alex Burghart said: “If some students are receiving qualifications based on work that is not their own, then it undermines the entire system. And it is brutally unfair on the vast majority of students who work hard to achieve the grades.”

He adds: “This immoral practice has been corroding the prestige and academic integrity of education for too long. The time has come to beat the cheats and bash the bullies.”

It’s estimated that currently there are 1,000 essay mills in operation, with a 2018 survey revealing that 15.7 per cent of recent UK graduates had admitted to cheating.

Essay mills claim to offer plagiarism-free essays with websites saying things like, “If you need help, we’ll write the entire paper or any chapter you need!”

The National Union of Students, who helped campaign for the ban, has heralded its success, highlighting the potentially predatory nature of essay mill websites.

NUS Vice-President for Higher Education Hillary Gyebi-Ababio said: “For too long, students – especially international students – have been preyed upon by these companies. They have often been blackmailed and intimidated when they’ve been at their most vulnerable. Having called for government action a number of times in the past, I am proud of  NUS ’ role in stopping this cruel practice.

“But students should never have been in the position where they feel they must turn to essay mills in the first place. The government must work with universities to ensure that adequate academic and pastoral support is provided for all students.”

Related stories recommended by this writer:

• Three out of four students no longer support striking lecturers after marking boycott

• Student loan system changes: One in four black students could be barred from university

• Revealed: One in three Russell Group university bosses received pay rises last year

Chappell Roan complains fame has made her miss ‘rolling up’ and ‘being a freak at the bar’

‘I miss frolicking, obviously, because now I’m self-conscious to frolic’

They all low-key hate each other, so here are the remaining Love Island 2024 couples ranked

It’s so obvious that Joey isn’t over Grace

He’s been in almost everything, so here’s a ranking of all Zac Efron’s highest paying roles

He got paid $8 million to be topless in most of Neighbours

A peek inside all the adorable new and existing romantic relationships of the MAFS UK cast

Could we be hearing wedding bells soon?

All the controversies and backlash Katy Perry’s had before the Woman’s World drama

She’s made multiple nasty digs at Britney Spears

I’m in denial already, but here’s how Jace tragically dies in the House of the Dragon books

We’re going to lose a mewing icon

Wil reveals two heartbreaking scenes Love Island cut that completely change his time with Uma

He planned 100 roses for Uma but production said to wait until tomorrow…knowing he was getting dumped

Omg, you’ll never believe who Alys Rivers has a baby with in the House of the Dragon books

I’m actually in shock

This is exactly which Brat song each UK uni would be based on vibes and vibes alone

Talk talk would be anyone BUT Oxbridge. You guys have said enough

‘My dad is gonna kill me’: Gypsy Rose Blanchard shares her initial reaction to pregnancy

‘The way my mother parented me is definitely not the way I’m going to be’

Sophie Ellis-Bextor called Strictly a ‘cult’ with ‘no help’ years before investigation claims

‘There’s no emotional care at all’

The story behind Glen Powell adopting his dog Brisket during Twisters is too wholesome

It’s Brisket’s world and we’re just living in it

Drag Race’s Kandy Muse and Elliott With 2 Ts are having a very public, messy fight right now

The drama is insane

Incest, cameos and burning alive: The most controversial moments from Game of Thrones

I expected incest from the Lannisters but Jon Snow and Daenerys were a curveball

A rundown of all the Love Island 2024 Islanders Joey already knew before the show

The population of Joey Essex Island is growing and growing

The Boys might have to delay this week’s finale after Trump assassination attempt

The episode is called Assassination Run – terrible timing

The new Strictly rules the BBC has been forced to introduce after Zara and Graziano claims

Couples will now have a chaperone at all times

Plastic surgeon reveals whether Zac Efron has secretly had work done to his face and jaw

I can’t believe how different he looks!

Maya Jama and Stormzy announce they have split AGAIN in lengthy bombshell statement

‘We tried, and it didn’t work, and that’s okay’

‘I broke down crying’: Everything Graziano’s previous Strictly partners have said about him

One partner considered quitting because her panic attacks had become so bad in rehearsals

Ranking The Boys characters by who definitely deserves to be killed off next

Hear me out… It’s not Homelander

• Share on twitter
• Share on facebook

Internet firms told to remove adverts as England bans essay mills

‘essay mills are now illegal entities, and you should not carry their advertising,’ says minister’s letter to sector.

• Share on linkedin
• Share on mail

The Westminster government has written to internet search providers asking them to remove advertising for essay mills after legislation making contract cheating illegal became law.

With the Skills and Post-16 Education Act receiving royal assent, it is now illegal in England to  offer to complete assignments or examinations for financial gain to students enrolled at a higher education provider, or to make arrangements to advertise such services.

In a letter published as the legislation passed its final hurdle , skills minister Alex Burghart tells internet service providers that “high numbers” of essay mills advertised online, with many using marketing “which indicate they are offering ‘legitimate’ academic writing support for students”.

Removing essay mill access to online advertising would “seriously hamper their efforts to target vulnerable students”, the minister writes.

“Essay mills are now illegal entities, and you should not carry their advertising. It is no longer a moral question; you will be facilitating an illegal activity. I ask you to do everything in your power to prevent the advertising of these unscrupulous practices,” the letter says.

The passing of the legislation brings England into line with other sectors that have outlawed contract cheating , including Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and several US states.

Experts have indicated that they do not expect significant numbers of prosecutions under the new law , since many essay mills are based overseas and it can be hard to trace their operators. In Australia, where legislation has been in place since 2020, there has been only  one court injunction against a foreign essay mill  to date.

However, academics have suggested that the legislation’s real role will be in sending a clear message that paying for help with assignments is illegal, helping to change student attitudes.

There have been calls for the UK’s devolved nations to follow suit with similar legislation against contract cheating .

Tom Yates, director of corporate affairs at the Quality Assurance Agency, which has campaigned for the UK to take action to protect academic standards, said that the new law was “an important step forward in the campaign against essay mills”.

“It will mean that universities and colleges can make clear to their students that using an essay mill means engaging with a criminal entity. QAA will continue to work closely with higher education and other institutions and with the Department for Education to address the threat posed by these unscrupulous businesses,” Mr Yates said.

“We will also continue our discussions with the other UK governments – we hope to see a similar ban applied in the other UK nations in due course. Criminalisation of essay mills is just one part of a broader sector-wide effort to protect and promote the academic integrity of UK higher education, and this work becomes ever more important as technology grows more sophisticated .”

The passing of the Skills and Post-16 Education Act also clears the way for the creation of a  lifelong loan entitlement , which would allow adults to borrow funding for the equivalent of four years of post-18 education over their lifetime. Under the plans – currently being consulted on – people could use the money to study a single module or build up a full degree over time.

[email protected]

Register to continue

Why register?

• Registration is free and only takes a moment
• Once registered, you can read 3 articles a month
• Sign up for our newsletter

Or subscribe for unlimited access to:

• Unlimited access to news, views, insights & reviews
• Digital editions
• Digital access to THE’s university and college rankings analysis

Already registered or a current subscriber? Login

Related articles

Judge contract cheating law ‘on culture change, not prosecutions’

Campaigners say English legislation unlikely to result in many prosecutions but will change student outlook on essay mills

Indian police investigate ‘fake degrees’ of government employees

Government employees with qualifications from a private college in Rajasthan face scrutiny after allegations of fake degree ploy emerge

New Adelaide University bids to entice international students

Programme details released as Adelaide’s universities enter final stage of merger

Banning ChatGPT in unsupervised exams ‘pointless’

Generative AI is ‘a bit like teenage snogging – everyone’s doing it although no one really knows how’

Featured jobs

• Work & Careers
• Life & Arts

The essay mills undermining academic standards around the world

Try unlimited access only $1 for 4 weeks.

Then $75 per month. Complete digital access to quality FT journalism on any device. Cancel anytime during your trial.

• Global news & analysis
• Expert opinion
• Special features
• FirstFT newsletter
• Videos & Podcasts
• Android & iOS app
• FT Edit app
• 10 gift articles per month

Explore more offers.

Standard digital.

• FT Digital Edition

Premium Digital

Print + premium digital, ft professional, weekend print + standard digital, weekend print + premium digital.

Today's FT newspaper for easy reading on any device. This does not include ft.com or FT App access.

• Global news & analysis
• Exclusive FT analysis
• FT App on Android & iOS
• FirstFT: the day's biggest stories
• 20+ curated newsletters
• Follow topics & set alerts with myFT
• FT Videos & Podcasts
• 20 monthly gift articles to share
• Lex: FT's flagship investment column
• 15+ Premium newsletters by leading experts
• FT Digital Edition: our digitised print edition
• Weekday Print Edition
• Videos & Podcasts
• Premium newsletters
• 10 additional gift articles per month
• FT Weekend Print delivery
• Everything in Standard Digital
• Everything in Premium Digital

Essential digital access to quality FT journalism on any device. Pay a year upfront and save 20%.

• 10 monthly gift articles to share
• Everything in Print
• Make and share highlights
• FT Workspace
• Markets data widget
• Subscription Manager
• Workflow integrations
• Occasional readers go free
• Volume discount

Complete digital access to quality FT journalism with expert analysis from industry leaders. Pay a year upfront and save 20%.

Terms & Conditions apply

Explore our full range of subscriptions.

Why the ft.

See why over a million readers pay to read the Financial Times.

NEWS... BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT

The rise of Essay Writing Services: A look at the ethics, legality, criticisms and defences of the VERY controversial industry

Share this with

The history of academic cheating is as long as the history of schools and universities themselves.

In ancient China, even the threat of the death penalty for cheating was not enough to put young scholars off trying any tactics that they could think of to get an advantage in the all-important civil service exams.

In the modern world, cheating at school or university is a lot less risky and also much easier. Google “essay writing services”, and you’ll get 3.7 million hits back in less than half a second.

Behind those hits are hundreds, if not thousands, of companies and individuals around the world offering to take the stress out of school or university by writing your essays for you.

Given the ease of accessing such services, it is no surprise that they are increasingly popular with stressed students who are struggling with the demands of their courses.

But just how common is so-called “contract cheating” becoming? In 2018, Professor Phil Newton of Swansea University set out to answer that question.

He went through forty years of surveys of students internationally to see how many of them admitted to getting someone else to write an essay for them. The results sent shockwaves through the academic community.

In the years 1978 to 2014, just under one in twenty students would admit to cheating like that. But in the years between 2014 and 2018, that number shot up to more than one in seven.

Doing the maths, Professor Newton calculated that around 31 million students around the world (including hundreds of thousands in the UK)  were getting someone else to write at least one essay for them each year.

In the five years since that study was completed, the situation seems to have got worse. Much worse according to Dr Thomas Lancaster of Imperial College London, the academic who coined the phrase “contract cheating” in the first place.

Dr Lancaster claims that the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent shift of education online have driven even more students to turn to the internet in search of essay writing services.

At the same time, the rise of sophisticated plagiarism detection software has made it much harder for students to just directly copy someone else’s essay.

But contract cheating gets around that by hiring someone else to produce an original piece of work, which can be almost guaranteed to pass the plagiarism detectors with flying colours.

According to research by Channel 4 , students in the UK using essay writing services have a less than 1% chance of being found out by their university. 

The scale of the problem is clear. But it is not clear what can be done about it. So, we take a deep dive into this murky industry: identifying the different types of essay writing services and looking at the legal and ethical issues around using them.

We also look at the arguments in defence of essay writing services and highlight the solutions that could help prevent students from needing to use them in the first place.

Understanding essay writing services

Essay writing is a thriving industry that comes in a wide variety of different forms. The basic principle is that a student pays a company or an individual to write an essay for them.

At one end of the scale are huge companies like Write My Essay , which offer highly professional essays (which they can then submit as their own work).

At the other end are individual freelancers, who can be found on websites such as Upwork and Fiverr, who will create bespoke essays for their clients.

Such websites have rules forbidding academic cheating, but they don’t appear to be enforced, with job adverts requesting essay writing services regularly posted on the platforms.

In between the very big companies and the individual freelancers are the many so-called “essay mills”, that specialise in churning out original content for students.

The companies normally have websites that are more or less frank about what they are doing. Some claim to be offering simply “educational support” by providing a sample essay that should inspire a student rather than giving them something that they can just pretend is their own work.

Essay writing services vary enormously in price, but research by Dr Thomas Lancaster has shown that sourcing essays direct from individual writers can be very affordable for students.

The average price for a 2,000-word essay is just over $11, with most of the writers providing such services coming from Kenya, Pakistan and Nigeria. Further research by the same author found that students on Twitter are willing to pay up to $66 for a 2,000-word essay.

Are essay writing services illegal?

Hiring someone to write an essay for you might be cheating but does that actually make it illegal? The answer to that question varies depending on which country you are in.

In many places, including most US states, using an essay writing service is actually perfectly legal . The reason for that is that such services only claim to be providing students with sample essays so present themselves as simply online tutors.

However, governments are coming under increasing pressure from universities to use the law to clamp down on the problem, and an increasing number have responded by making such services illegal.

New Zealand was one of the pioneers in such legislation, leading the way in legislating against essay mills. Other places that have already done the same include Australia, Ireland and several US states.

In April 2022, the UK government followed suit. Now it is illegal to either provide or use essay writing services in the UK . As of June 2023, no actual criminal charges have been brought against anyone under the new legislation.

Perhaps recognising the difficulty in enforcing this law, the British government has written to internet search engines and service providers asking them to “do everything in your power to prevent the advertising of these unscrupulous practices”. Nevertheless, a simple search on google.co.uk will return thousands of hits for various companies.

Even in those countries that have not yet banned essay writing services, submitting someone else’s work as your own is certainly a breach of university and college policies.

So, while students in most US states might not face criminal charges for using such a service, they are very likely to find themselves facing serious penalties from their institution. Such penalties could go as far as seeing them kicked off their course. 

Still, given the difficulties in detecting content that has been written by a third party for a student to submit, that’s a risk that many are prepared to take.

Research has shown that up to 50% of students would consider cheating as long as they were confident that they could get away with it.  

Ethical Aspects

Regardless of whether essay writing services are legal in a particular country, serious questions remain about the ethics of getting someone else to do your work for you.

After all, degrees are awarded on the basis of a student’s intelligence and ability to work hard and give them privileged access to jobs and other opportunities as a result. So, surely, it’s wrong to steal an advantage over your more honest peers by just paying someone to do the work for you?

Another ethical consideration is that if students are cheating to gain qualifications does that mean that they might get a job that they are not really qualified for?

And how much more serious do those ethical questions become if, for example, someone is qualifying as a doctor on the basis of work that someone else did for them? In such cases, academic cheating can have serious real-world consequences in terms of impacting patient safety.

Essay writing companies have also been accused of preying on vulnerable students and encouraging dependency on their services.

By doing so, they prevent those students from developing the knowledge and critical thinking skills that are supposed to be the whole point of education. Other concerns have been raised about the fact that essay writing services expose students to the risk of blackmail.

In defence of essay writing services

Nevertheless, despite all the legal and ethical charges levied against them, essay writing services do have their defenders.

Some see them as essential services for stressed out students who are unable to cope with the pressure of having to submit too many assignments, especially when they are using them for subjects that they do not intend to major in.

Others have argued that in the real world after university, people will always collaborate with others and commission them to do work, so why shouldn’t they do the same during their academic careers?

Some commentators have stated that modern students have been brought up in a sharing economy with unlimited access to the resources they need online, so why shouldn’t they use essay writing services too?

Other arguments have focused on the struggles of students who are non-native speakers of English.

Many foreign speakers travel to English-speaking countries to complete their education and use essay writing services to overcome the stresses and difficulties of studying in a foreign language and to put themselves on the same playing field as their peers.

Other students find themselves forced to study in English even when in their own country, which can again prompt them to try to level the playing field by turning to essay writing services.

The basic thrust of many of the arguments that defend such services is that they are filling gaps that the university itself should be filling.

If universities provided proper support, less students would need to turn to essay writing services in the first place.  

Prevention and solutions

So, what can be done to prevent the rise of essay writing services? As the arguments in defence of such services suggest, universities can do more to support students, especially those who are not native speakers or who have learning difficulties.

More academic and pastoral support could reduce students’ reliance on contract cheating. For example, overstressed students should be encouraged to speak with their tutors to request the extra time that they might need to complete assignments, which would prevent them from turning to essay writing services in the days before their deadline.

There are also technical solutions emerging that might prevent students from using such services.

As Dr Lancaster has explained , such technology works by “identifying how we all write. We’ve all got a unique style and it shows in how complex our language is, the words we use too much, indicators like that. If you suddenly then hand in something written with a different writing style, that’s suspicious.”

Finally, more might need to be done to explain to students the importance of not using such services and the ethical issues involved in their use.

As Dr Grant Klinkum of New Zealand’s Qualifications Authority, has said, “Some of our values, based on some Renaissance idea of the value and importance of intellectual endeavour and so on, may not be shared by increasing numbers of students… This is not about immoral students. This is about varied values.”

As we have seen, essay writing services are thriving, despite increasing attempts to clamp down on them through legislation.

Despite all the ethical issues surrounding their use, desperate students will turn to them, especially because there is little chance of them getting caught.

What do you think? Should more be done to prevent students from using essay writing services and to crack down harder on those who do?

Or should we focus on the positive sides of such services and see them as just another aspect of modern education that helps students to learn and develop? Whatever your answers to those questions, it seems certain that essay writing services are here to stay, and some students will continue to use them for as long as they can get away with it.

Sign up to our guide to what’s on in London, trusted reviews, brilliant offers and competitions. London’s best bits in your inbox

By ticking this box, you confirm you are over the age of 18*. Privacy Policy »

Enter your birthday for your free daily horoscope sent straight to your inbox!

Get us in your feed

Essay mills explained: What they are and why you should avoid them

Essays and term papers can be stressful, especially for international students who sometimes doubt their ability to research in depth and write thousands of words in English, all to a tight deadline.  

That’s where essay mills come in, exploiting the fears of students and offering to do the hard work for them in exchange for money. 

But here’s the spoiler alert - you should absolutely avoid essay mills. All the time.

They don’t work for you. They don’t even work for the essay writers themselves, and you should see that as a big warning sign. But more on that below.

What are essay mills? 

Essay mills are pretty straightforward: You pay a company to write your essay for you. The company in turn offloads the essay to a (usually freelance) writer. A couple days or weeks later, and you get your completed essay in return. 

It’s not like a proofreading service, where someone can check your spelling, grammar and citations for a fee (though even those are controversial in universities). No, essay mills offer to write you an entire essay from scratch. 

In other words, they allow students to commit academic fraud. In fact, they exploit the worries and stresses of students and entice them into cheating. They’re considered deeply unethical, and put students themselves at risk of severe punishment if caught. 

Another business model of this kind are essay banks. Here, students can buy essays that have already been written. But there’s a much higher risk of getting caught for plagiarism, since who knows how many hundreds or thousands of people have used that very same essay. 

Are essay mills legal or illegal?

The legality of essay mills depends on where you go to university, but the unethicality is clear no matter the location. Here’s a quick rundown of essay mills’ legal status in popular study abroad countries:  

Anti - essay mill legislation in the UK was passed in the House of Commons in February 2021, and will soon be made law. It’s not totally illegal yet, but it’s just a matter of time. 

The Republic of Ireland has also passed a number of bills to help tackle essay mills, while the practice is totally illegal in Australia and New Zealand. 

As for the USA and Canada, some US states have made them illegal, while Canada is under mounting pressure to follow suit.  

But the content and nuances of these laws changes from place to place. For example, in some US states it’s illegal for the student to use them, whereas the bills in Ireland, the UK, New Zealand and Australia are an attempt to criminalise essay mill companies themselves.

However, when we talk about legality, we’re of course talking about the law. But just because you might not cause a criminal offense by using essay mills, it’s still academic fraud and/or plagiarism. And getting caught for that can come with some dire consequences. 

Long story short, you really shouldn’t use them, regardless of their legality. 

Why you should avoid essay mills

1. if it doesn’t make dollars, it doesn’t make sense.

The writer's pay is awful. I mean really bad. Trust me -- I write for a living, and I’ve seen hundreds of advertisements for essay mill jobs. Every time I see one I can’t believe how little money the writers make for so much time and effort.  

But does this affect you? Totally! Would you care about doing great work if, a) the money was terrible, and b) it wouldn’t take you anywhere in your career? I know I wouldn’t...

Let’s talk about cost and time to put this into some perspective. The price range of essay mills varies wildly depending on the writers they employ. You can pay anywhere between £10-£35 per page. Roll this out over a 10 page essay, and it could be anywhere between £100 and £350 for the final product. But you can also come across offers for much, much less money than this.

While that higher end of £350 might seem like a lot of money, trust me -- it’s really nothing for the amount of research, writing, citations, editing and proofreading required. 

If £100 per day is considered a “just fine but not great” sum of money in the UK, a writer would have to do all the work on your essay in 2.5 days just to make it worthwhile. And they’d have to do it without the subject knowledge that you have. 

2. The writers aren’t subject experts

Think about it: if they were a subject expert, would they really be working for a shady company that facilitates cheating? Not a chance. 

The main point is that these writers are badly underpaid and they’re not experts, therefore they’re putting very little effort or expertise into your essay. They just want to do it as quickly as possible before moving onto the next one. 

3. There’s no guarantee of a good grade

None. Since the writers are underpaid, lack expertise and rush their work, it’s a recipe for a bad final product. Multiple studies have shown that essay mills do mediocre work at best. 

The essay you pay hundreds of pounds for might get you a pass grade, but you could do much better yourself. 

4. The punishment is harsh

Every university has severe laws on plagiarism and academic fraud, which is the exact result of using an essay mill. At its most lenient, a student caught breaking rules on plagiarism will receive no grade at all for the work, but at worst they can be suspended or even expelled from your university.  

But the perfect “crime” goes unnoticed, right? Well, it’s unlikely in this case. 

5. Essay mills and detection services

Most universities use pretty innovative plagiarism detection software these days, which can pick up on any hint of fraudulent work. Thus, the risk of getting caught is very high. And by the time a student does get caught, they’ve already lost their hard earned cash to the essay mill company. 

6. Essay mills don’t care about you

The company doesn’t care about you, and nor does the writer. That’s a pretty bad starting point for doing business! Once they’ve got their money and done their sub-standard work, they can move on to exploiting someone else’s fears. 

7. There’s a risk of scams 

Most essay mill sites demand a deposit of the final amount, or sometimes the entire fee up front. Either way, you won’t see your essay until you’ve paid them something. This makes it a prime opportunity for scam artists to take your money without giving anything in return. 

You see, it’s extremely easy for scam artists to launch a website advertising essays for sale, then just shut the operation down once they’ve made some quick cash without doing any work. 

Speaking of scams, here’s an article on some other international student scams to watch out for !

8. There’s a risk of bribery too

And then there’s the risk of bribery. Even if a student thinks they’re anonymous while dealing with essay mills, they’re not. There’s an email address, bank account name, even their IP address to worry about. 

So if the company or the writer decides that they want to blackmail or bribe a student by threatening to unveil the truth, they can. And they’ll always be able to.  

A final word on essay mills: Honest work is the best work

It sounds old fashioned, but there’s no replacement for smart, hard, honest work. Any student can write a great term paper or essay assignment on their own. All it takes is time, research, and some focus. 

Even if you’re under pressure or lack some confidence in your English ability, there are so many better ways to deal with it. Use a study abroad education counsellor , speak to your teachers and your friends. They’ll be able to point you in the right direction and help make that essay easier. 

As for essay mills? Forget about them. They’re exploitative, they serve no good purpose, and you can do a better job yourself!

So you’re thinking about studying abroad? Great! Check out the range of amazing courses available through Edvoy. Click here to get started or click the button below!

Guest Author | Study Abroad Expert

Disclaimer: The views and opinions shared in this site solely belong to the individual authors and do not necessarily represent t ...Read More

International student life in the UK

Top 10 tips for students to keep busy during quarantine

5 reasons why employers love foreign graduates

10 best cities to study abroad in Europe

How to stay productive when you’re studying at home

Blended Learning: What is it and how do I improve at it?

• All vacancies
• Jobs London
• Jobs Liverpool
• Jobs Manchester
• Jobs Bristol
• Jobs Leicester
• All locations
• Part time jobs
• Evening jobs
• Weekend Jobs
• Internships
• Summer Jobs
• Graduate Jobs
• Apprenticeships
• Work from home jobs
• Job categories
• I am an employer
• About StudentJob
• CV Examples and Tips
• No Experience CV Examples and Tips
• Cover Letter Examples and Tips
• Job Interview Questions and Tips
• All Application Tips
• Free CV maker
• Info about ages
• Employee Rights
• Employment Contracts
• Perks at Work
• Salary and Tax
• Well-being at Work
• Netherlands
• Switzerland
• Professions Guide
• Summer jobs
• Graduate jobs
• Weekend jobs
• Popular jobs
• Jobs in the Netherlands
• Jobs in Portugal
• Jobs in Greece
• Jobs in Spain
• Jobs in China
• All jobs abroad
• Work with us
• Place a vacancy
• Search our CV database
• Employer tips
• Recruitment guide

STUDENTJOB BLOG

Are essay writing services legal.

Universities and colleges have become highly competitive institutions. Starting from the admission process until the very last exam, students stress about deadlines, grades, hectic schedules, internships, internal scoring. Currently, many students are forced to start preparing for college way before the application term begins. No surprise, one in six students seeks help and order an essay from a professional writing service online.

Even though it's a commonplace practice, a lot of students are still not sure if essay writing services are legal and safe. Let's debunk all myths surrounding writing services and sort it out once and for all if it's legal or not to pay someone to do your homework.

Register now with StudentJob

Do you want to be kept up to date on the latest jobs for students? Register for free on StudentJob.

REGISTER     CREATE YOUR FREE CV

Reasons Why Custom Essay Writing Services Are Legal

To keep it short, yes, it's completely legal to order writing services from a professional writer online. Here is a more elaborated answer to why essay writing services are legitimate.

Writing Services Conform to the Law

First of all, no existing national law says the opposite. No law explicitly regulates writing services and impose any restrictions on who is eligible to use them and for what purposes. In 2018, more than 40 UK universities signed a petition asking the government to take measures and ban essay writing services. The US educational institutions also pushed the government to prohibit students from ordering papers online. But no specific legislation was passed yet in any of the mentioned countries.

The legal essay writing companies fall in the same category as the ghostwriting services. At its core, both services work in the same manner and don't fall into a grey area. In the end, it's not the questing of a student wanting to break the law and outsmart the system. It's an attempt to overcome challenges imposed by the professors and high expectations, CustomEssayMeiister , is just one of these services that provide essay writing services.

You Are the Owner of the Final Work

There are two tricky issues in regards to the writing services: copyrights and plagiarism. The legislation is pretty straightforward and strict regarding any intellectual property ownership rights. That's why services transfer ownership rights of any paper to the client. Since you're a legitimate owner of an essay, you're not breaking any copyright laws.

Another student's concern is plagiarism. Ordering an essay from another person doesn't mean you plagiarise it. The term plagiarism implies stealing someone else's work and calling it your own. Writing services emphasize that every work is written from scratch, is 100% unique, and properly-referenced. And as all ownership rights are handed over to you, it's more of a moral dilemma than a legal issue.

Confidential, Yet Transparent Industry

On the website of every reliable service, you'll find terms and conditions, service guarantees, and a privacy policy. These papers describe all aspects of service-client relations and provide you with guarantees. 

How You Use the Product

The only way to make it illegal is to break the rules mentioned in the terms and conditions. For example, you decide to resell or distribute your essay. All writing services mention that delivered essays must be used only for personal and non-commercial needs. But it's definitely not illegal, and there is no administrative punishment. 

Reaching out to writing services for professional help, you're not breaking any law. But it can be considered cheating by your university. Yes, you can be subjected to disciplinary proceedings in case you get caught. That's why it's important to choose a reliable and safe service.

Why Not Go with the First One You See

What can possibly go wrong? There is plenty of news about how fraudulent essay writing services sent hundreds of marketing emails to UK university students. Another article tells how services promising professional English-native writers end up being companies from Kenya.

Thus being said, you'll either send your information and money and never see an essay or get a low-quality paper and waste lots of time and nerves communicating with a company. Here are 6 things to look for when choosing a writing service.

Things to Consider Before Taking Help from Essay Writing Services

Making the right choice is probably the hardest part of the whole process. If you google search ´ write my essay ?´ you'll get more than 285 million results. Every link promises you an A-grade essay written by an expert in the field. You may also receive a couple of emails to your university inbox advertising tutor and writing services.

What Other Students Have to Say

The best way to find a reliable service is to ask friends and other students for recommendations. If you don't want others to know you're ordering essays online, there are other options. First, many services post samples on the website. Take time and look through a couple of them. You'll get the idea of the writing style and if a paper is well-structured and researched.

The next step is to look for students' testimonials and reviews. The problem is that no service want and will post brutally honest or negative comments. To see the full picture, you can check websites like EssaysAdvisor.com , where William Grabe exposes scammers and gives comprehensive reviews of the services. William isn't affiliated with any of them, even though he provides discount codes to some of them, and does it for years. So, you can be sure you'll get an honest opinion and learn all the pros and cons of any service. It's a good alternative if you don't want to ask around but still needs an honest review.

A Company Provides Plagiarism Reposts

100% uniqueness is an essential offering of all writing services. Before placing an order, check the guarantees that a company provides, ask questions. See if a company provides plagiarism reports. Another good sign is if a company offers a refund in case of plagiarism or any other mistake. Like any other business, it's the last thing a writing service wants. That's why it's an additional guarantee the company is confident in its writers and quality of service.

The last piece of advice: don't rush to submit a paper and double-check it for uniqueness with check-plagiarism , even if a service guarantees a high quality of their work. It's better to spend an additional couple of minutes than face problems later.

If a Writer Can Mimic Your Writing Style

Overall, there is no way a professor can spot if you ordered an essay from a professional writer. Placing an order, you can mention your requirements and preferences. The only thing that can give you away is your writing style.

Imagine you've submitted four papers this semester, and one of them differs so much that it leaves the impression someone else has written it. Then it's a matter of the professor if they decide to investigate it any further and confront you with their doubts. That's why check if a writer can adjust their writing style to match yours.

Another thing is to look for a specialist working with your level of academics. It might be tempting to hire the best to work on your paper. But the best doesn't always mean it's best for you. Suppose you hire a PhD holder to write your essay for the first year of your bachelor. First, it's a waste of money. Second, any professor can spot the difference and suspect something wrong.

Additional tip: after receiving an essay, slightly edit it to match your writing style. It's not a call to make mistakes intentionally, but rather change a couple of words here and there.

Your Personal Information Is Secure

There is a possibility that if services are too cheap, the company may earn a bit more by selling your personal information to third parties. Always check service privacy policy or use services that provide maximum confidentiality. To write an essay, a writer needs to know your level of education, topic, requirements, and preferences. They don't really need to know more about you, the university you go to, or the name of the professor. The most reliable services communicate with students via accounts on the website, so that a writer knew you only by your client number.

You Know Every Detail About the Process

It's a sign of a trustworthy service if it provides you with updates or gives you tools to keep an eye on the progress. Yes, you're paying for a service so that it helped you and freed you time, but don't distance yourself from the process completely.

Many services have 24/7 customer service ready to answer all your questions. Some open you a direct communication channel with your writer. Thus you can be sure the work is going, and you'll get your paper on time. In case you have additional information or new requirements, you can forward them to your writer.

The way a service communicates with the customers tells a lot about the quality of work you'll receive. You may not see the direct correlation between these two factors, but it all comes down to the level of professionalism.

A Writer Knows What They Are Doing

An abundance of writing services can be explained by the variety of services they provide. Some companies focus on college essay writing. Others specialize in nursing papers or scholarship motivation letters. A company with many writers on board can cover all needs you may have to start from high school until you get your Ph.D.

That's why one of the things to check before placing an order is to make sure the company can meet your needs and provide the services you are looking for.

Bottom Line

Essays writing services are completely legal and operate like any other service provider. They are registered entities and work under the existing legislation of your country. No laws restrict students from ordering essays online or seeking professional academic help. Those services provide a learning aid, and some students order only proofreading or editing services.

The services hand over all ownership rights and follow a zero-plagiarism policy. So you won't have any problems with copyrights or get a plagiarized paper. 

Even though all writing services are legal, not all of them are legit. That's why before placing an order, research what you are signing up for and read the reviews. 

Share this article

Popular posts.

Best Practices for Training and Supporting New Graduate...

A staggering 57.47% of the UK population boasts tertiary qualifications. That's according to a 2023 report. And that's just in the UK...

Working While Studying: The Rules Foreign Students Need...

Working While Studying: The Rules Foreign Students Need to Know A survey published in 2023 found that more university students than ever...

4 Top Time Off Management Practices During Peak Business...

Dealing with peak business periods can be a whirlwind for any organisation, especially with employees taking paid time off. Usually,...

Exploring the Digital Marketing Landscape: A Guide for...

The digital world is vast and filled with opportunities, especially for those eager to carve out a career in online marketing. The...

• Business Advice
• Career path
• Finding a job
• Job Application Tips
• Job interview tips
• Revision tips
• Saving money
• Student budget
• Student life
• Study and work abroad
• Work experience
• Work-life balance
• Working life
• Navigating the Murky Waters of Workplace Favouritism
• Mass Layoffs and Complex Reasons Behind Organizational Restructuring
• Unemployment Rates in the UK: An Overview of History, Figures, and Current Trends

Student Cities

• Jobs in Belfast
• Jobs in Bristol
• Jobs in Birmingham
• Jobs in Edinburgh
• Jobs in Glasgow
• Jobs in Leeds
• Jobs in Liverpool
• Jobs in London
• Jobs in Manchester
• Jobs in Newcastle
• Jobs in Nottingham
• Jobs in Sheffield
• Jobs in Southampton
• Advertise with us
• Candidate search
• Testimonials
• Find Part Time Jobs
• Find Holiday Jobs
• Find Internships
• Find jobs abroad
• Application tips

Search the site

Employer login

Free employer profile.

You can log in on StudentJob if you have made an account as an employer. Finding the right candidate for you is just a few clicks away.

Don't have an account as an employer?

Students applying to UK universities will not need to write personal statement essay

• higher education
• Wednesday 17 July 2024 at 10:25pm

People applying to university will no longer have to write an essay for their personal statement, Ucas has confirmed.

Instead, those applying to start in 2026 will answer three guided questions.

The admissions body Ucas said it is to level the playing field for disadvantaged students.

The move comes after longstanding concerns that the existing personal statement favours advantaged students who can get more support.

It is hoped the structured questions will provide students from all backgrounds with a better understanding of the key information universities and colleges want to know about them when making admissions decisions.

Ucas data suggests the gap in university application rates between the most and least advantaged students has widened in the last year.

Currently, applicants set out their skills, experiences and their reasons for applying for a course in a text box – which can be up to 4,000 characters.

But from September 2025, students who are applying for 2026 entry to university or college courses will answer three questions:

Why do you want to study this course or subject?

How have your qualifications and studies helped you to prepare for this course or subject?

What else have you done to prepare outside of education, and why are these experiences helpful?

Previous Ucas research found 79% of students felt the process of writing the personal statement was difficult to complete without support.

Ucas surveyed potential applicants about to start their personal statement, and found more than three-quarters prefer the new three-question format.

The answers to those questions will still be up to 4,000 characters long, combined.

The number of 18-year-olds in the UK applying to undergraduate courses has risen slightly this year.

But the application rate from the most disadvantaged backgrounds has fallen slightly to 25% in England, while rate for the most advantaged has increased to 61%.

Jo Saxton, chief executive at Ucas, said: “Today’s figures show that whilst positive progress has been made, there is still much to do.

“The changes to the personal statement, along with our recent fee waiver for students in receipt of free school meals, are all part of Ucas’s contribution to the sector-wide effort to ensure more people from disadvantaged backgrounds can benefit from the life-changing opportunity of higher education.

“During my time in schools, I saw first-hand how the personal statement can help students really clarify and articulate their ambition, but also how challenging it can be for those with less support.

“The new approach, with guided questions, aims to give greater confidence to those students, as well as their teachers when advising on how to secure their dream course.”

Kevin Gilmartin, post 16 specialist at the Association of Schools and College Leaders (ASCL), said: “This is a very welcome change. The current ‘text box’ approach is far too vague and has favoured students who are able to draw on support from family members that have previously been to university and submitted personal statements themselves.

“The switch to structured questions will provide much needed clarity to students about what information they should be including.

“These questions should also be of more use to admissions tutors than the old-style personal statements, which research has shown were barely being read in many cases.”

A report by the Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi) think tank last year suggested that university applicants’ personal statements are read for just two minutes on average.

Lee Elliot Major, professor of social mobility at the University of Exeter, said: “This welcome reform strikes the right balance between a more structured approach to deter fabrication, while not limiting the opportunity for applicants to personalise their statement.

“I believe it is a significant step in making the university admissions system a little bit fairer for all applicants.”

Want a quick and expert briefing on the biggest news stories? Listen to our latest podcasts to find out What You Need To Know...

• Skip to Primary Navigation
• Skip to Content
• Go to the home page
• Go to Latest news
• Go to the sitemap page
• Go to search
• Go to the Decided cases
• Go to the Current cases
• Go to the Complaints Policies and Judicial Conduct
• Go to the terms and conditions page
• Go to the contact us page
• Go to the accessibility statement page
• Accessibility
• Press office
• The Supreme Court
• About the Court
• Current Cases
• Decided Cases
• Latest News
• Court Procedures
• Visiting the Court
• Art Competition
• Ask a Justice
• Debate Days
• Free Online Course
• Educational Videos
• Learning resources
• Legal Landmark films
• Student writing competition
• Visits for schools, colleges and universities
• Virtual tours for JCPC schools
• Visits from overseas education institutions

15th Anniversary Essay Competition

The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom is pleased to launch an essay competition to mark the Court's 15th anniversary. We invite registered university students and pupils and trainees with UK-based firms or chambers to submit essays considering the following question:

"As the Supreme Court approaches its 15th anniversary, what reflections would you offer on its role and achievements?"

Lady Simler, Justice of the Supreme Court, will select the winning entry. First prize will win a meeting with Lady Simler, a tour of the Court, and a UK Supreme Court coffee table book.

To enter, email your essay of no longer than 1500 words to [email protected] , citing 'Essay Competition' in the subject line. The competition closes on 30 September 2024.

We look forward to reading your papers!

Terms and conditions

• The competition is open to all students in any discipline registered with a UK university or other higher education institution, together with all pupils, trainees, and apprentices with firms of solicitors or barristers' chambers established in the UK except employees of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom and members of their families.
• Submissions should be no longer than 1500 words, including footnotes and references. Essays that exceed this word limit will not be considered.
• Deadline for submissions is 23.59 on Monday, 30 September 2024 . Essays must be submitted by email to [email protected] in Microsoft Word format, citing 'Essay Competition' in the subject line.
• When submitting your essay, please include your name, address, contact telephone number and details of the educational institution, barristers' chambers or firm of solicitors that you belong to in the covering email. Please do not include this or any other identifying information in the essay itself.
• The essay must be the sole creation and original work of the entrant. Any form of plagiarism will result in automatic disqualification.
• Alongside your submission, please complete and return the Declaration . Submissions made without the Declaration will not be considered.
• Only one entry per person will be allowed.
• The essay must not have been submitted to any other essay competition.
• Essays will be judged anonymously, and the winner will be selected by Lady Simler, Justice of the Supreme Court.
• The winner will be selected in December 2024 and will be notified no later than January 2025.
• First prize will win a meeting with Lady Simler, a tour of the Court, and a UK Supreme Court coffee table book, and a certificate signed by Lady Simler.
• Runners up whose essays were shortlisted in the top 5 will receive a coffee table book and a certificate signed by Lady Simler.
• We will inform all entrants of whether they have been successful or unsuccessful. We do not otherwise have capacity to provide feedback on individual entries.
• For any questions, please contact [email protected]

The Gunman and the Would-Be Dictator

Violence stalks the president who has rejoiced in violence to others.

Produced by ElevenLabs and News Over Audio (NOA) using AI narration.

When a madman hammered nearly to death the husband of then–House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Donald Trump jeered and mocked . One of Trump’s sons and other close Trump supporters avidly promoted false claims that Paul Pelosi had somehow brought the onslaught upon himself through a sexual misadventure.

After authorities apprehended a right-wing-extremist plot to abduct Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Trump belittled the threat at a rally. He disparaged Whitmer as a political enemy. His supporters chanted “Lock her up.” Trump laughed and replied , “Lock them all up.”

Fascism feasts on violence. In the years since his own supporters attacked the Capitol to overturn the 2020 election—many of them threatening harm to Speaker Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence—Trump has championed the invaders, would-be kidnappers, and would-be murderers as martyrs and hostages. He has vowed to pardon them if returned to office. His own staffers have testified to the glee with which Trump watched the mayhem on television.

Now the bloodshed that Trump has done so much to incite against others has touched him as well. The attempted murder of Trump—and the killing of a person nearby—is a horror and an outrage. More will be learned about the man who committed this appalling act, and who was killed by the Secret Service. Whatever his mania or motive, the only important thing about him is the law-enforcement mistake that allowed him to bring a deadly weapon so close to a campaign event and gain a sight line of the presidential candidate. His name should otherwise be erased and forgotten.

It is sadly incorrect to say, as so many have, that political violence “has no place” in American society. Assassinations, lynchings, riots, and pogroms have stained every page of American political history. That has remained true to the present day. In 2016 , and even more in 2020, Trump supporters brought weapons to intimidate opponents and vote-counters. Trump and his supporters envision a new place for violence as their defining political message in the 2024 election. Fascist movements are secular religions. Like all religions, they offer martyrs as their proof of truth. The Mussolini movement in Italy built imposing monuments to its fallen comrades. The Trump movement now improves on that: The leader himself will be the martyr in chief, his own blood the basis for his bid for power and vengeance.

Christopher R. Browning: A new kind of fascism

The 2024 election was already shaping up as a symbolic contest between an elderly and weakening liberalism too frail and uncertain to protect itself and an authoritarian, reactionary movement ready to burst every barrier and trash every institution. To date, Trump has led only a minority of U.S. voters, but that minority’s passion and audacity have offset what it lacks in numbers. After the shooting, Trump and his backers hope to use the iconography of a bloody ear and face, raised fist, and call to “Fight!” to summon waverers to their cause of installing Trump as an anti-constitutional ruler, exempted from ordinary law by his allies on the Supreme Court.

Other societies have backslid to authoritarianism because of some extraordinary crisis: economic depression, hyperinflation, military defeat, civil strife. In 2024, U.S. troops are nowhere at war. The American economy is booming, providing spectacular and widely shared prosperity. A brief spasm of mild post-pandemic inflation has been overcome. Indicators of social health have abruptly turned positive since Trump left office after years of deterioration during his term. Crime and fatal drug overdoses are declining in 2024; marriages and births are rising. Even the country’s problems indirectly confirm the country’s success: Migrants are crossing the border in the hundreds of thousands, because they know, even if Americans don’t, that the U.S. job market is among the hottest on Earth.

Yet despite all of this success, Americans are considering a form of self-harm that in other countries has typically followed the darkest national failures: letting the author of a failed coup d’état return to office to try again.

One reason this self-harm is nearing consummation is that American society is poorly prepared to understand and respond to radical challenges, once those challenges gain a certain mass. For nearly a century, “radical” in U.S. politics has usually meant “fringe”: Communists, Ku Kluxers, Black Panthers, Branch Davidians, Islamist jihadists. Radicals could be marginalized by the weight of the great American consensus that stretches from social democrats to business conservatives. Sometimes, a Joe McCarthy or a George Wallace would throw a scare into that mighty consensus, but in the past such challengers rarely formed stable coalitions with accepted stakeholders in society. Never gaining an enduring grip on the institutions of state, they flared up and burned out.

Trump is different. His abuses have been ratified by powerful constituencies. He has conquered and colonized one of the two major parties. He has defeated—or is on the way to defeating—every impeachment and prosecution to hold him to account for his frauds and crimes. He has assembled a mass following that is larger, more permanent, and more national in reach than any previous American demagogue. He has dominated the scene for nine years already, and he and his supporters hope they can use yesterday’s appalling event to extend the Trump era to the end of his life and beyond.

The American political and social system cannot treat such a person as an alien. It inevitably accommodates and naturalizes him. His counselors, even the thugs and felons, join the point-counterpoint dialogue at the summit of the American elite. President Joe Biden nearly wrecked his campaign because he felt obliged to meet Trump in debate. How could Biden have done otherwise? Trump is the three-time nominee of the Republican Party; it’s awkward and strange to treat him as an insurrectionist against the American state—though that’s what Trump was and is.

David Frum: Biden’s heartbreaking press conference

The despicable shooting at Trump, which also caused death and injury to others, now secures his undeserved position as a partner in the protective rituals of the democracy he despises. The appropriate expressions of dismay and condemnation from every prominent voice in American life have the additional effect of habituating Americans to Trump’s legitimacy. In the face of such an outrage, the familiar and proper practice is to stress unity, to proclaim that Americans have more things in common than that divide them. Those soothing words, true in the past, are less true now.

Nobody seems to have language to say: We abhor, reject, repudiate, and punish all political violence, even as we maintain that Trump remains himself a promoter of such violence, a subverter of American institutions, and the very opposite of everything decent and patriotic in American life.

The Republican National Convention, which opens this week, will welcome to its stage apologists for Vladimir Putin’s Russia and its aggression against U.S. allies. Trump’s own infatuation with Russia and other dictatorships has not dimmed even slightly with age or experience. Yet all of these urgent and necessary truths must now be subordinated to the ritual invocation of “thoughts and prayers” for someone who never gave a thought or uttered a prayer for any of the victims of his own many incitements to bloodshed. The president who used his office to champion the rights of dangerous people to own military-type weapons says he was grazed by a bullet from one such assault rifle.

Conventional phrases and polite hypocrisy fill a useful function in social life. We say “Thank you for your service” both to the decorated hero and to the veteran who barely escaped dishonorable discharge. It’s easier than deciphering which was which. We wish “Happy New Year!” even when we dread the months ahead.

Adrienne LaFrance: Thoughts, prayers, and Facebook rants aren’t enough

But conventional phrases don’t go unheard. They carry meanings, meanings no less powerful for being rote and reflexive. In rightly denouncing violence, we are extending an implicit pardon to the most violent person in contemporary U.S. politics. In asserting unity, we are absolving a man who seeks power through the humiliation and subordination of disdained others.

Those conventional phrases are inscribing Trump into a place in American life that he should have forfeited beyond redemption on January 6, 2021. All decent people welcome the sparing of his life. Trump’s reckoning should be with the orderly process of law, not with the bloodshed he rejoiced in when it befell others. He and his allies will exploit a gunman’s vicious criminality as their path to exonerate past crimes and empower new ones. Those who stand against Trump and his allies must find the will and the language to explain why these crimes, past and planned, are all wrong, all intolerable—and how the gunman and Trump, at their opposite ends of a bullet’s trajectory, are nonetheless joined together as common enemies of law and democracy.

Advertisement

Supported by

27 Facts About J.D. Vance, Trump’s Pick for V.P.

Mr. Vance spilled scores of details about his life in his coming-of-age memoir. We’ve collected the highlights.

• Share full article

By Shawn McCreesh

Follow the latest news from the Republican National Convention .

J.D. Vance, Donald J. Trump’s choice for vice president, has not lived an unexamined life. Here are 27 things to know about him, drawn from his best-selling 2016 memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” and the many other things he has said or written since.

1. His name was not always James David Vance. At birth, it was James Donald Bowman. It changed to James David Hamel after his mother remarried, and then it changed one more time.

2. He longed for a role model. His father left when he was 6. “It was the saddest I had ever felt,” he wrote in his memoir. “Of all the things I hated about my childhood,” he wrote, “nothing compared to the revolving door of father figures.”

3. He had a fraught relationship with his mother, who was married five times. One of the most harrowing scenes in the book occurs when he’s a young child, in a car with his mother, who often lapsed into cycles of abuse. She sped up to “what seemed like a hundred miles per hour and told me that she was going to crash the car and kill us both,” he writes. After she slowed down, so she could reach in the back of the car to beat him, he leaped out of the car and escaped to the house of a neighbor, who called the police.

4. He was raised by blue-dog Democrats. He spent much of his childhood with his grandfather and grandmother — papaw and mamaw, in his hillbilly patois. He described his mamaw’s “affinity for Bill Clinton” and wrote about how his papaw swayed from the Democrats only once, to vote for Ronald Reagan. “The people who raised me,” he said in one interview, “were classic blue-dog Democrats, union Democrats, right? They loved their country, they were socially conservative.”

5. As a teenager, he loved Black Sabbath, Eric Clapton and Led Zeppelin. But then his biological father, who was deeply religious, re-entered his life. “When we first reconnected, he made it clear that he didn’t care for my taste in classic rock, especially Led Zeppelin,” he wrote. “He just advised that I listened to Christian rock instead.”

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and  log into  your Times account, or  subscribe  for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber?  Log in .

Want all of The Times?  Subscribe .

Try AI-powered search

Water’s benefits and risks run deeper than many know

Two new books warn of battles over ocean management and freshwater supply.

The High Seas. By Olive Heffernan. Greystone; 368 pages; $32.95. Profile; £22

The Coming Storm. By Liam Fox. Biteback; 368 pages; £25. To be published in America in October; $29.95

W HAT WOULD summer be without water: without frolicking on a beach, fishing in a lake or savouring a novel poolside? And yet, for anyone who cares about the health of the world’s oceans, 2024 has been a bleak year. Mass fish deaths , driven by drought and heat, have been reported on opposite sides of the world, in Vietnam and Mexico. Most of the world’s coral reefs have bleached , a process in which unusually warm water temperature makes coral brittle, bone-white and susceptible to disease and possibly death.

Nor is the news much better for people. In March the UN reported that around half the world’s population experiences “severe water scarcity” annually. Drought has caused one of Mexico City’s main reservoir systems to run dry, and population growth has led the city to overtax its water table, leading it to gradually sink—a similar fate to Jakarta, which is subsiding so quickly that the government is building a new capital on a different island. Humanity, a species nurtured on a watery planet, is struggling to manage its most abundant resource, as two new books highlight.

Olive Heffernan’s “The High Seas” is the more compelling and better reported of the pair. It focuses on the 64% of the world’s oceans that are outside the control of any country and cover around half of the Earth’s surface. She argues that the world is witnessing a saline tragedy of the commons on a vast scale. Oceans are Earth’s greatest carbon sink, having absorbed roughly one-third of all carbon emissions since the dawn of the industrial age. Phytoplankton—tiny flora and bacteria—take in about as much carbon as all plants and trees on land combined. Oceans also provide around one-sixth of the world’s animal protein eaten by humans.

Countries and companies, all making individually rational decisions, risk doing irreparable damage to both of those functions. Sometimes these decisions are legal: no law stops Russia from sending its decommissioned satellites to rest in a remote part of the Pacific Ocean, despite risks to the marine ecosystem. But often they are not: some Chinese fishing vessels, for instance, use illegal nets, seize protected fish such as sharks near the Galapagos and lie about their catch.

Nowhere is this tension between rationality and risk clearer than in people’s quest to fish the ocean’s mesopelagic zone , the region between where photosynthesis stops (around 100 metres below the surface) and the part entirely devoid of light (which starts at around 1,000 metres down). This area is home to some odd fish, including the siphonophore, a tentacular colony of stinging creatures, and slender snipe eels, with 750 vertebrae (most adult humans have 24). Mesopelagic creatures account for 95% of the ocean’s fish by weight; every day they complete the largest animal migration in the world, rising from the depths to feed at higher levels.

Several countries have started and abandoned efforts to fish the mesopelagic zones, citing high costs and low catches, but Norway is making a more sustained effort, processing unappetising creatures into fishmeal for its burgeoning (and lucrative) salmon farms . But mesopelagic fish play a vital role in the ocean’s carbon-sequestration cycle, and nobody knows the effects of thinning them out—whether the zone can be sustainably fished or whether it could quickly become as overfished as the surface. (As one researcher explains, “If this works, it will be an opportunistic fishery…you’ll have to go and get as much as possible before it disappears.”)

This speculation about short-term benefits versus unknown but plausibly catastrophic long-term harms crops up throughout the book. The seabed is rich in minerals, including valuable ones such as gold and platinum, and although nobody has yet found a way to mine them cheaply, efforts are intensifying. Some of these minerals may help the world get greener, but disturbing seabeds creates plumes of sediment that smother creatures below and cause lasting damage to biodiversity.

Sometimes Ms Heffernan’s concerns descend into excessive hand-wringing. Marine life offers immense commercial potential. AZT , an HIV drug, and Remdesivir, the first approved covid treatment, came from compounds found in sponges. Some 34,000 marine compounds have been found suitable for a range of products including cattle feed, ice cream and virus tests. Once scientists harvested these compounds from marine life; today they can use genetic information uploaded to online databases. Ms Heffernan asks whether using such digital gene-sequencing amounts to “biopiracy”, but precisely what is being stolen and from whom is unclear.

Overall, however, her book is admirably clear-eyed, refusing the easy consolation of toothless treaties and mollifying pabulum from politicians. Just as Saudi Arabia is building a greener economy while also positioning itself to be “‘the last man standing’ when it comes to oil extraction”, she notes that many countries likeliest to ratify a treaty intended to protect the high seas will keep polluting and overfishing.

While Ms Heffernan crossed the globe and plumbed the depths to write her book, Sir Liam Fox, a former British politician, seems to have plumbed Wikipedia’s depths for his almost comically fact-rich tome. He wrote “to join the dots” and explain why he believes water— battles over access, climate-driven threats and maritime conflicts—will prove as much a flashpoint in this century as oil was in the 20th.

His reasoning is sensible: in the coming decades much of the world’s population growth will take place in African and Asian countries that already struggle to provide their citizens with fresh water. Countries’ water management can affect their neighbours, stoking the prospect of conflict. Fights can also emerge over access to shipping channels, as the low-level conflict in the South China Sea testifies. Failure to provide citizens with clean water can also lead to malnourishment and disease. And abundance can quickly turn to scarcity: “Today’s flooded will become tomorrow’s thirsty,” Sir Liam argues.

Yet despite (or perhaps because of) Sir Liam’s worthy concerns and puppyish enthusiasm, his book reads like a school report. Declaring that it “is difficult to precisely predict the effects that climate change…might have in the future on human health” wins zero points for bravery.

Still, Sir Liam’s book has value. It is alarming but not alarmist and compiles a tremendous amount of water-related information. Neither book offers concrete recommendations beyond heightened concern. But if, over the course of this century, water and the life it sustains grow scarce or imperilled, conflict and privation seem not just possible but inevitable. ■

For more on the latest books, films, TV shows, albums and controversies, sign up to Plot Twist , our weekly subscriber-only newsletter

More from Culture

Taking on the global brotherhood of despots

How autocrats collaborate, and how they fall

The largest sting operation you’ve never heard of

A new book looks at Anom, a messaging app started by the FBI to catch criminals

Why American sports teams switch cities so often

And why fans outside America should fear being similarly jilted

Spain’s footballers, cream of the Euros, reflect a changed nation

Sport can express fierce rivalries—but it can also heal

The best film and television of 2024 (so far)

What to stream on your summer holiday

Whoever wins at Wimbledon, many of tennis’s professionals are losers

A new book chronicles the grim reality of chasing sporting success