Students: Fraud

(asked on 28th March 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the prevalence of fraudulent dissertation-writing services for university students; and what plans he has to address that practice.


Answered by
Sam Gyimah Portrait
Sam Gyimah
This question was answered on 16th April 2018

Higher education providers, as autonomous organisations, are responsible for handling matters of this nature, including developing and implementing policies to detect and discourage plagiarism. To help providers tackle the issue, we asked the Quality Assurance Agency, Universities UK and the National Union of Students to produce new guidance, which was published in October 2017: http://www.qaa.ac.uk/publications/information-and-guidance/publication?PubID=3200#.WmB-u2xLHoA.

This guidance is the first set of comprehensive advice for providers and students on the subject. It makes clear that where providers are working with others to deliver programmes, such as through validation, care should be taken to ensure that partner organisations are taking the risks of academic misconduct seriously. Providers are also encouraged to consider steps to scrutinise potential partners' processes and regulations when developing validation arrangements. This is in line with the wider expectations set out in the UK Quality Code for Higher Education (http://www.qaa.ac.uk/assuring-standards-and-quality/the-quality-code), which all providers must meet. The code establishes the fundamental principle that degree awarding bodies have ultimate responsibility for academic standards and the quality of learning opportunities, regardless of where these opportunities are delivered and who provides them.

Going forward, I expect the Office for Students to encourage and support the sector to implement strong policies and sanctions to address this important issue in the most robust way possible.

Reticulating Splines