Contract cheating in UK higher education: A covert investigation of essay mills

In short

Essay mills, seen from the supply side. The authors approached five providers undercover and bought work from two, then report ten reassurance cues on the sites and inconsistent stances on misconduct.

What it looked at

Five essay mills approached undercover, with a purchase completed from two of them. The authors analysed the website wording before purchase, the ethical positions the providers set out, and the quality of the two purchased assignments through grading and text-matching reports. The setting is UK higher education.

What it means for teaching

May help when talking with students about why essay mill offers can appeal, drawing on the reassurance cues the authors found on provider websites.

Limits

Only two assignments were bought, from the five providers approached, so the findings on product quality rest on a very small number of purchases.

Cited 107 times by other papers, as counted by OpenAlex in November 2026. A count measures attention, not quality.