Our Desk | Paid academic services

Lynzy Valles

Dissertation papers are mostly required in support of candidature’s completion of an academic degree. These dissertations give the author the platform to outline his or her research and findings. Such papers also test the independent research skills they have acquired throughout their time at the university.

I have had several encounters wherein students purchase essays, research papers, theses and all kinds of assignments needed for specific classes.

From animation homework, video editing, photography to written articles, you name it, it has been purchased.

I remember back in university when the whole class barely slept for a few days due to a difficult animation project to be handed in to a strict professor.

The task was to create a game using the codes discussed in class – which was an extremely painful challenge for students like me who were not really interested in coding.

On the day we presented our final works, we found out that one of us actually did not have a hard time creating his work as he just bought his project a few days before the deadline.

If I recall it rightly, he bought the project for $30.

These kinds of services are rampantly available online and people can be completely anonymous in buying them.

The question is, how can professors determine whether these are really the works of their students?

Plagiarism is a big no in the academic world. But I think this also stands for ensuring assessments are completed by the student. 

There are several websites that accommodate the service of selling papers, with some guaranteeing their clients that their services are “plagiarism-free, always on time and written to standard.”

“If we are a minute late, the works is on us – it’s free!”

“If the work we produce contains plagiarism, we’ll pay out a $500 guarantee.”

I am aware that academic experts have the necessary online tools and system to determine whether the works of the students – particularly dissertation papers – are plagiarized.

However, the number of platforms that offer these assignments for sale services also seem to be increasing.

One website claims that one in five students have at least thought of hiring a dissertation writing service. For a fee of $500, one can get a master’s thesis of 20 pages (which may be equivalent to a chapter) done within 15 to 30 days.

A familiar tool that detects whether a work is plagiarized is Turnitin – a prevention tool designed to help faculties evaluate the originality of student work by comparing the submitted works to other electronic documents available online.  At least for the University of Macau, as cited in their website, the teaching staff are entitled to request a Turnitin submission.

Thus, to avoid plagiarism, students are encouraged to document all sources and quotes and reference them correctly.

Those that are particularly wealthy enter the Ivy League schools in the United States by paying bribes just to be guaranteed places at these universities.

These stories are mostly familiar among affluent Chinese families.

There have been hundreds of cases which include students caught cheating by falsifying SAT results, and paying other people to take English tests on their behalf.

According to reports, the parents of a Chinese student paid $90,000 for a personal agent to assist him to get through the whole university application process, guaranteeing three to five offers from universities in the Top 60.

With all these services made available and easily accessible, how can one trust that a certain diploma or acceptance at an Ivy League school was actually made possible with “hard work?”