Essay Cheat

SOME of Britain's brightest students are earning hundreds of pounds by making their notes and essays available on a dedicated website. Academics said the practice could lead undergraduates to copy the work and present it as their own, and gave warning that students could be expelled for cheating. GradeGuru described itself as a note-sharing website for students who needed study aides or those with material they wanted to share for financial "reward''. The site claimed to have contributions from 281 British institutions and said its "gurus'' or contributors had earned a total of pounds 7,846 between them so far. The top three university "gurus'', all unnamed, were listed as a management graduate from Manchester, who had received pounds 384; a law graduate from Durham, who earned pounds 305; and a philosophy and politics graduate from York, who earned pounds 252. Members can access the material for free, unlike other essay-sharing websites. Contributors to GradeGuru, which makes its money from advertising, are paid pounds 30 for a module-worth of notes, while essays can fetch between pounds 3 and pounds 6. Universities are alert to the possibilities for plagiarism offered by the internet. An Oxford University spokesman said cheating was a very serious matter. He added: "Statute XI on University Discipline was changed in 2008 to make it a disciplinary offence to provide potential exam answers.'' One student told Oxford University's Cherwell newspaper website that everyone had their friends' essays and could obtain other people's. GradeGuru carries a warning against committing plagiarism: "It is a violation of our community standards to 'lift' materials off our site or submit other members' work as your own.'' Emily Sawtell, the site's founder, said: "The idea is students share study materials they have created to help them succeed in their courses and we reward students helping their peers. "Conversely, students looking to get a sense of what is expected in a course, inspiration in a course and ideas on how to improve study methods can learn from top students in the country. "We make it clear we don't condone or tolerate plagiarism which is set out in the terms and conditions on the site.'' The Daily Telegraph (London) February 21, 2009 Saturday Brightest students cashing in; by selling notes online BYLINE: Urmee Khan and Paul Stokes SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 9 LENGTH: 371 words