City students hand in essays from internet

Published on 04/12/2008 09:05

CHEATING students have admitted handing in essays bought over the internet.

Five per cent of Edinburgh University students surveyed said they had cut, copied and pasted their way towards degrees.

And the university confirmed that over the year hundreds of cases of plagiarism had been formally investigated.

But some canny students are cashing in on the problem by selling their own essays and dissertations to so-called "cheat-sheet" websites for thousands of pounds.

The copycats at Edinburgh were exposed by their own magazine, The Student, which also said only one in 15 students who admitted cheating were actually caught.

Student association president Adam Ramsay blamed lecturers for not giving students enough support. He said: "The survey shows that some students plagiarise intentionally. This sometimes stems from a lack of support and teaching contact time. These problems need to be addressed."

Almost 120 cases of suspected plagiarism were investigated in the 2007-08 academic year at Edinburgh University.

A university spokesperson said it viewed any case of plagiarism extremely seriously.