Academics believe about 8 per cent of university students are regularly cheating on their assignments as universities concede they are embroiled in an “arms race” with outsourced providers of fake essays.

A new weapon in this arms race is artificial intelligence, which can generate essays almost from scratch, or at least help formulate parts of them, according to associate professor in academic integrity Nick Milne.

Cheating is becoming an “arms race” at universities.Credit:iStock

New figures show the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency received 385 referrals about contract cheating in the first six months of 2022, compared with 138 in 2021 and just 21 in 2020.

The agency says up to 8 per cent of students in Australia may be engaged in contract cheating, meaning they have outsourced their work to a paid third party. It has combined with internet service providers to block access to 150 commercial contract-cheating sites since August.

Victorian universities have disciplined and in some cases expelled students found to have engaged in contract cheating, depending on the severity of the misconduct. Experts say contract cheating ranges from students visiting cheating sites to have just one question answered, to paying a ghostwriter to complete an entire subject.

Milne said the rates had been “significantly jumping” since 2019, which he attributed to better detection processes.

A graduate from Monash, identified as ‘Natasha’, paid $400 to an online service to produce a 3000-word art history essay.

“There’s been a lot of effort put into training teachers, lecturers, on how to identify potential signs of contract cheating,” he said.

Milne said contract cheating existed across all cohorts from international to domestic students, mature age students and school-leavers, and spread through word of mouth. He said universities used a range of different techniques, including commercially available software, to identify plagiarism.

From early next year, the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency will release an online course developed by academic integrity experts from several Australian universities to teach academic and professional staff how to detect contract cheating.

“One of the big challenges is entering into an arms race,” Milne said. “We are learning about the ways in which students may be cheating, then [it’s] getting back to the agents who are acting in this space changing their practices, so we have to learn again.”

Milne said artificial intelligence – which allowed machines to write essays or answer problems when given the right prompt – was a fast-growing problem.

“It has reached a point where it appears the sort of outputs would be considered passable – but not great,” he said.

Although he said it was harder for AI to provide good critical or emotional analysis, it was easier in courses like engineering, maths and science. In those areas, he said, “we’ve been dealing with similar things for some time”. AI software is already widely used and accepted as a way to rewrite or suggest alternatives to grammatically incorrect sentences.

Milne said as an engineer, the AI wasn’t particularly different from engineering software that did calculations and was used every day. He said it was something “we need to address as a sector”.

“Where is the point that utilising AI is acceptable?” he said. “We teach students how to use the tools, what’s acceptable, whether what they are putting out is reasonable.”

He said students would still need to understand how it worked so they could understand the reliability of the output but “it doesn’t mean it’s a free-for-all”.

Last year, Deakin University expelled 11 students for contract cheating, and detected 238 instances of contract cheating. In 42 instances, the student was suspended and in the remaining 185 cases, they received zero marks for their assessment task or for the unit.

Milne said students who were expelled were often repeat offenders.

Deakin Deputy Vice Chancellor Professor Liz Johnson said the university was investing in new ways of monitoring and detecting contract cheating, including investigating historical cases.

Johnson said students were given advice on what constituted contract cheating and its ramifications.

Another researcher, Guy Curtis, said of those who cheated, more than 60 per cent did so more than once. He speculated that increased pressure on students and reduced support systems made them more likely to pay to get others to complete their assignments.

A 2019 study into why students contract cheat, which surveyed thousands of students across eight universities, found students cheated because they weren’t satisfied with the teaching, they spoke another language or there were lots of opportunities to cheat.

A Bachelor of Fine Arts graduate from Monash University, who wished to be identified as “Natasha”, paid $400 to an online service to produce a 3000-word art history essay. Natasha said she was dealing with a chronic physical health issue at the time, along with financial stress, and that she didn’t feel comfortable asking for a second extension from her tutor.

“The second time you ask for help, you’re suddenly [seen as] an arsehole,” she said.

Students cheat at their own risk.Credit:Louise Kennerley

Natasha soon discovered that the service was a scam when the essay she received was full of factual and grammatical errors. Natasha said she suspected it was written by someone who didn’t speak English as a first language. “It was basically the most incomprehensible piece of dribble I have ever read in my entire life,” she said.

Kane Murdoch is manager of complaints, appeals and misconduct at Macquarie University and previously led a team of contract-cheating investigators at the University of NSW. He said expulsion should be avoided, other than for the most serious cases. Many contract-cheating providers operated from overseas, targeting vulnerable students and in some cases blackmailing them, he said.

“If a student engages in contract cheating on one occasion for quite specific reasons, then it wouldn’t be proportional to kick them out of uni,” Murdoch said. “University is a learning environment and people stuff up, people make mistakes, and we should be mindful of that and be proportional in our response.”

The University of Melbourne did not provide statistics on the number of students who had engaged in contract cheating. A spokesperson said strong penalties were enforced when misconduct had been found to have occurred.

“The overwhelming majority of students demonstrate a commitment to academic integrity, but a very small minority of students do not,” the spokesperson said.

University of Melbourne Student Union president Sophie Nguyen said the union saw a lot of allegations, but “it is mostly students who have received misconduct allegations for using sources like [online homework help service] Chegg to get a handful of answers for an exam, as opposed to students who have been alleged to use third parties to write entire exams or assignments”.

A Monash University spokesperson said 29 students had engaged in contract cheating last year, which was consistent with previous years. Monash took an “educative approach”, as well as a preventive approach to minimise opportunities for academic dishonesty.

“When students are found to have breached academic integrity, the seriousness of the breach determines the response,” the spokesperson said. “Students may either be required to resubmit their work in order to pass, or a fail grade for the work or suspension or exclusion from the university may be applied.”

A La Trobe University spokesperson said both domestic and international students had to complete academic integrity training.

The spokesperson said La Trobe used recognition technologies and continuously updated site-blocking for websites that were potentially or allegedly used for contract-cheating promotion.

“There are a number of ways contract papers can be identified, including assessment of variations in style or capability, and detecting recycled papers and content. Penalties range from failing the subject to expulsion.”

With Jacob Gamble

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