Have you ever been shocked when you’ve met someone who has studied overseas in an English-speaking country or university, got the degree to prove it, and yet has really terrible English and/or little-to-no understanding of what they have a degree in? Doesn’t it make you wonder how they survived in university, let alone studied the assigned reading, not to mention completed the assignments? Well, wonder no longer: ghost-writing essays and assignments is a billion-dollar industry, and is suspected to afflict almost every university, but it is of particular concern in Australia, the UK and the US – countries with prestigious universities that claim superior global rankings, and where there are still people legitimately interested in learning the subject they are supposed to be becoming ‘Masters’ of. It turns out they will likely be classmates with cheaters that have no idea about or interest in the subjects they are enrolled in, and no moral compass guiding them either. From the first article it is clear that the market for Chinese students in Australia is mostly controlled by Chinese companies and other Chinese students looking to supplement their income. Both are out to facilitate cheating by offering ghost-writing services specifically tailored to the grades the cheaters are looking for. This is similar to the claims in the BBC Africa report that the ghost-writers interviewed make, ranking themselves at a certain level of degree in their writing services. Even more surprising is that the Chinese cheating services also cater for the lower English levels that the cheaters possess, which they claim is so as to not arouse suspicion with the lecturers, but could equally just be a way to explain away their own lack of English proficiency. Either way, they clearly don’t care a fig about honesty or morality; Mammon is their patron saint. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-01/chinese-students-paid-to-ghost-write-for-australia-uni-students/11725330 https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-africa-50126963/the-kenyan-ghost-writers-doing-lazy-western-students-work |