“Contract cheating occurs when a student submits work that has been completed for them by a third party, irrespective of the third party’s relationship with the student, and whether they are paid or unpaid.” (Harper et al., 2018)
For information on how to discuss Contract Cheating with students refer to the Student Academic Integrity Website.
When marking there are some triggers that highlight a student may have submitted work that is not their own. This includes but not limited to having purchased their assessment task from an essay mill or similar essay bank, or had someone else write all or part of the assessment task.
Download the Identifying Contract Cheating While Marking tip sheet.
Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency. (2021). Academic integrity toolkit: contract cheating. https://www.teqsa.gov.au/contract-cheating
Yorke, J., Sefcik, L. & Veeran-Colton, T. (2020). Contract cheating and blackmail [Poster].
Yorke, J., Sefcik, L., & Veeran-Colton, T. (2020). Contract cheating and blackmail: a risky business? Studies in Higher Education, (2020). https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2020.1730313
Harper, R., Bretag, T., Ellis, C., Newton, P., Rozenberg, P., Saddiqui S. & van Haeringen, K. (2018) Contract cheating: a survey of Australian university staff, Studies in Higher Education, DOI: 10.1080/03075079.2018.1462789
Yorke, J., Sefcik, L., & Veeran-Colton, T. (2020). Contract cheating and blackmail: a risky business? Studies in Higher Education, (2020). https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2020.1730313