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Contract Cheating and Commissioning

Academic Integrity Workshop held at the University of Northampton (27 February

2017)Dr. Thomas Lancaster Robert ClarkeStaffordshire University Educational Consultant

http://thomaslancaster.co.uk (formerly Birmingham

@DrLancaster City University)

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Workshop Background

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What do we know about contract cheating – and how has this become a more visible problem in recent years?What has the research into contract cheating established?How can contract cheating be addressed?How can a culture of academic integrity be developed?

Workshop Overview

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Dr. Thomas LancasterAssociate Dean at Staffordshire UniversityTeaching background in Computer ScienceAcademic and researcher into plagiarism and academic integrity since 2000

Robert ClarkeFormer Principal Lecturer at Birmingham City UniversityHas collected more than 30,000 requests by students to outsource their assessments using agency websites

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Many examples in the workshop are illustrative of themes identified in the contract cheating literatureMuch of the useful information on contract cheating is published as blog posts, interviews, slideshows, newspaper analysis etc.This workshop is intended to bring external ideas together and allow lecturers to think about good practice that can be applied to their own teaching and learning strategies

A Research Informed Workshop

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http://www.slideshare.net/ThomasLancaster

Many of my own ideas end up on my SlideShare account, rather than in formal publications

(the slides from today’s workshop are also available on SlideShare)

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Many Opportunities For Your Involvement

Twitter Please tweet thoughts, observations, comments, quotes, photos, discussion topics#contractcheating@DrLancaster

Live Please join in the discussion, ask questions and contribute stories

“Ask Me Anything!”

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What is Contract Cheating?

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A (General) Description of Contract Cheating Is…

A student uses a third party to create their academic work for them - or the

student attempts to involve a third party in the creation of such academic work

This is not a formal definition – just an attemptto capture the feel of contract cheating

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A Student Just Like Theo?

https://youtu.be/BoaUkvIhMcI

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Discussion Question

What contract cheating concerns do you have based on the information in the video?

What other issues regarding contract cheating would you like to see addressed?

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Wider changes in the higher education landscapeContinued media attention regarding contract cheating and how universities are addressing the problemMarketing push behind contract cheating servicesIncreased sophistication of the contract cheating industry

2017 Developments In Contract Cheating

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Contract Cheating in the Media

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The Guardian – 21 February 2017

Contract Cheating In the 2017 Media

The Telegraph – 13 January 2017

Hindustan Times – 21 February 2017

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The Role Of The Media

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Wider Issues Of Academic Integrity

Staffordshire University – February 2017http://www.staffs.ac.uk/news/students-think-it-is-normal-to-use-performance-enhancing-drugs-shows-study-tcm4293302.jsp

The Conversation – 31 January 2017http://theconversation.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-fake-degrees-and-the-universities-awarding-them-71132

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The Student Cheating “Industry”

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Why Do Students Use Contract

Cheating Services?

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Speaking in Serbia – February 2017

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Discussion Question

Why do students feel the need to cheat?Why specifically do students use contract cheating services?

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https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/5v7wvg/we_are_the_owner_and_one_of_the_professors_from/

Reddit Discussion – February 2017

“I'm the owner of UnemployedProfessors.com, and I'm joined here today by /u/IamDeleuzienne and /u/IamProfessorRogue, two of our star writers. You might have seen an article about us on reddit's front page last week (TIL), which led to several requests for an AMA. We're here to answer your questions and share our stories.ProofWe get some pretty crazy clients and a lot of hatemail, which we understand. We help people cheat. Sometimes we are infiltrated by journalists or other academics who try to dox us. Sometimes people try to 'out' us as a fake paper mill. For example, this Daily Dot journalist who planned to expose us, only to receive an A- paper written by /u/IamDeleuzienneAs far as we know, we're the only major site that writes original papers, guaranteed to pass TurnItIn”

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“A variety or reasons! And yes, we do finish half-written essays quite often.Some common reasons:Non-native speaker struggling to pass Composition or literature coursesHumanities student struggling to pass a mandatory science courseStudent struggling to pass a required math course for a science majorStudent struggling with health issues or family illness, and unable to complete a paper on timeStudents is rich enough to just have someone else do it so they can go out and party”

“What is often the motivation for students to purchase services like yours? Is it because they are lazy/unmotivated or are they sometimes overworked? And in the second case, would a student be able to send a half written essay for you guys to finish it?I dont promote the idea of cheating, but seeing what ludicrous assignments are floating around like "Write a essay that is atleast 60 pages about a subject that isnt relevant to your study" etc. Makes me wonder if those overwhelmed students are the majority of your clients or if the majority is just lazy.”

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Why Do Students Cheat?

“essentially…because the perceived chances of being caught and the perceived punishment if caught are less than the perceived benefit of cheating, at the time when the cheating occurs”

"Practical Free-text Plagiarism Investigation"Professor Fintan Culwin

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Rigby, D., Burton, M., Balcombe, K., Bateman, I., Mulatu, A., Contract Cheating And The Market In Essays, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Volume 111, March 2015, Pages 23-37

Over 50% of students said that they would be willing to contract cheat if their risk of detection was low

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167268114003321

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Contract Cheating – The Marketing Developments

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Offline and Online Advertising

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Advertising On Noticeboards

“University approved” contract cheating advert found on bulletin boards in Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Canada

fake stamp“Ghostwriters have arrived in North America, no more worries aboutyour essays.”

http://www.richmond-news.com/news/chinese-cheat-sheet-ads-removed-from-university-bulletin-boards-1.2365350

Richmond News, October 14 2016

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“We run advertising campaigns on campuses and at bars near campuses.”

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Elaborate contract cheating network identified through Twitter promotion

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An (unbiased?) review site found on Twitter

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Forum linked to the review site

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Forum posts

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Essay mill being promoted

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A selection of other Twitter adverts for essay mills and contract cheating services

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Gumtree(classified ads site)

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It looks like marketing works…

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“We're getting overwhelmed with projects. We're not that big of a company, so with 2,000+ new registrations and only a dozen profs, some of who aren't working today, it's more than we can handle. We decided to pull it from the front page and not send more traffic to our site right now. We do have over 100 new job applications, so once we've vetted those, we might come back.”

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How Lucrative Is The Essay Industry?

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“Many of our clients are non-native speakers, often from China”

MyMaster

700 receipts1000 assignments$160,000 AUD of business

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“Channel 4 Dispatches investigated the multi-million pound industry where university students pay companies to write their coursework.

Dr Thomas Lancaster, Britain’s leading expert on academic cheating says: ‘The vast majority of students of course are completely honest but I’ve seen estimates of £200 million a year going through these [essay writing] sites.’”

Channel 4 (UK) Dispatcheshttp://www.channel4.com/info/press/news/dispatches-investigation-reveals-extent-of-student-plagiarism

£200 Million of Business?

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“On average, we get around 1500-2500 projects per month.”

“100 page thesis in 4 weeks? You can probably get one of our profs to do that for approximately $2500-3000.”

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Contract Cheating Is Fuel led By Habitual Customers

Our first study (2006) found that the “average” student using RentACoder.com had already posted between 4 and 7 assignments online at the time we did the study

(RentACoder has since been merged into Freelancer)

Clarke, R and Lancaster, T (2006). Eliminating The Successor To Plagiarism? Identifying The Usage Of Contract Cheating Sites; 2nd Plagiarism: Prevention, Practice and Policy Conference 2006 - Newcastle, UK, June 2006.

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What Assignments Do Students Outsource?

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A current agency site providing essays and assignments for students

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The most prolific “writer” on the agency site

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Most recent work undertaken by the prolific writer

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Latest Completed Work On Whole Site

24 HOUR NEWS REPORT Outline, Healthcase study Case Study, PhilosophyEnvironmental Ethics Essay, Environmental SciencesBoeing case study uses six thinking hats Case Study, BusinessIf I was the son of an englishman POEM ANALYSIS Essay, English LanguageThe current state of Ethnic and racial relations in Great Britain and historical basis for the current state. Research Paper, Cultural StudiesChapter 8 Coursework, Cultural StudiesPost Your Rough Draft of Your Research Memo Research Paper, English LanguagePerception of anti-bias curriculum Other types, EducationSeeing the whole child Other types, Education

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Health assignment

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10 hour deadline – still had 9 offers

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Ethics – 18 offers

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Core business case study

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Not just essays

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“Nursing, education, business, literature.More physical non-profits, and online for-profits. People who go to online non-profits (SNHU, WGU, etc.) typically go there because they're less expensive, so they don't have the money to use our services.”

“What is the most common type of paper that is being requested? (History, Arts, etc.) Does it seem to come from more physical schools, or online?”

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EssayBay Study Of 627 Assignment Requests

R European Langs, Lit & relatedP Mass Comms and Documentation

W Creative Arts & DesignF Physical Sciences

K Architecture,Build & PlanH Engineering

M LawG Mathematical & Comp Sci

Q Linguistics, Classics & relatedC Biological Sciences

X EducationB Subjects allied to Medicine

V Hist & Philosophical studiesL Social Studies

N Business & Admin studies

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180

Lancaster, T. and Clarke, R. (2012), Dealing with Contract Cheating: A Question of Attribution, 1 st HEA STEM Conference April 2012, London, United Kingdom

(EssayBay is no longer operational,but there are lots of alternatives)

Sample of 627 “all subject” cases collected on EssayBay over 5 months in 2010, and manually put into the categories used by UCAS in the UK

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Other Observed Requests

Completing ‘pre-interview’ on-line aptitude tests for a candidateCreating fake letters from an employer to support a student projectMaking up reflective entries for a Personal Development ProfileAltering marks on an academic transcriptProducing fake certificates for completed courses

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“I see requests for a research article about twice a month. They get fewer bids, because most people in academia, even tenured professors, cannot guarantee that their own paper will be published, let alone guarantee it to someone else.I've seen two or three get published. We just make it very clear that we make no guarantees.”

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Are Outsourced Assignments Any

Good?

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Ofqual Study

Purchased 2,000 word ‘A’ Level essays from three UK essay writing servicesHistory essay, price £120-£220, awarded B, C/D, EEnglish language essay, price £70-£138, awarded C/D, D/E, U/E

Mystery shopping exercise of web-sites that offer a range of ‘support services’ to students, LE London Economics, September 2014http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20141031163546/http://ofqual.gov.uk/documents/mystery-shopping-exercise-support-services-students

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£275 “Buys” A Mark Of 65%(shown on BBC Fake Britain)

Good work - no real indicators of suspicion

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26 History Essays Purchased

Lines, L., 2016. Ghostwriters guaranteeing grades? The quality of online ghostwriting services available to tertiary students in Australia. Teaching in Higher Education, 21(8), pp.889-914.

Fail Pass Credit DistinctionUndergraduate 2 7 3 1

Postgraduate 6 3 2 2

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Not all reviews suggest that the work obtained is so good

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“Many of our professors will offer to include a few mistakes (and we're only human, we make mistakes too) to make the paper more believable, but interestingly, clients typically turn down that offer. They tell us they want the best possible paper so they'll get an 'A'. Since our papers are original and pass plagiarism filters, that usually works out okay, but we recommend including a few typos at least.”

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Work purchased through contract cheating can be high quality – but buyer

beware!

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Strategies For Reducing Contract

Cheating

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Discussion Activity

Think of an assessment that you’re aware of that may be susceptible to contract cheatingWhat changes might you make to that assessment to ensure that students are completing their own work?

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“Some strategies (like annotated biblios) simply bring us more money. In-class writing is already something we're helping out with. We outline the work for them, and I presume they use their IPhone screens in class. It's good.”

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“The best way to catch students is to ask them to talk to you, without telling them beforehand what it's about. Then once they're in your office, start asking them where they found each source. If they're smart, they'll refuse to admit anything and you don't have a case, but in my experience, they tend to get nervous and confess. I'm surprised more professors don't do this, since we almost never get complaints about getting caught.”

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There is some research work showing promise, particularly involving stylometrics and identifying the fingerprints of ghostwriters, but this is not yet a ready solution

Detection?

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Authentic assessment?Student designed assessment?Unseen assessment?Spoken assessment?Peer reviewed assessment?Just in time assessment?

Prevention?

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ActivityContract Cheating

Scenarios

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Activity

In a small group, discuss the assigned scenarioReport back with a short summary of the issues raised (and the possible solutions)

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The issues surrounding contract cheating

extend beyond teaching and assessment

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For Further Consideration

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THE POLICIES OF ASSESSMENT

Run submitted student work through Turnitin – it may provide indications of contract cheatingExamine work for signs suggesting a different authorCreate and (search for) traceable assessments

Set original assessment tasksRequire staff to reflect on how well assessment reduces cheatingUse elements of unseen and authentic assessmentEngage students throughout the assessment process

Det

ectio

nP

revention

Use the prospect of detection as a method of prevention

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Continuing The Contract Cheating Discussion

Why do we find contract cheating for

some academic subjects and not

others?

How can we work with students to promote a

culture that encourages academic

integrity?

What needs to be done to make sure

that we are assessing the ability of the

students registered on courses?

How can we adapt academic processes

to ensure that contract cheating cases are

always taken forward?

Is it possible to systematically detect contract cheating?

How can we find funding and use this effectively to explore

the issues surrounding contract

cheating?

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CONTACT THOMAS LANCASTER

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Connect With Thomas Lancaster

(Speaking, PhD Supervision, Collaborations)

Contact Details

Email: thomas@thomaslancaster.co.uk Website: http://thomaslancaster.co.ukBlog: http://thomaslancaster.co.uk/blogLinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/thomaslancaster Twitter: @DrLancaster

General Resources:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contract_cheatinghttp://contractcheating.com

Contract Cheating Special Interest Group(originally supported by the Higher Education Academy):https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=CONTRACTCHEATING

Slides available at http://www.slideshare.net/ThomasLancaster

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References For Our Main Contract Cheating Publications

Lancaster, T. and Clarke, R. (2016). Contract Cheating – The Outsourcing Of Assessed Student Work, in Handbook of Academic Integrity, Bretag, T. (editor): SpringerReference.Lancaster, T. and Clarke, R. (2015). The Implications of Plagiarism and Contract Cheating for the Assessment of Database Modules. 13th International Workshop on Teaching, Learning and

Assessment of Databases (TLAD 2015), Birmingham, UK, July 2015.Hersey, C. and Lancaster, T. (2015). The Online Industry of Paper Mills, Contract Cheating Services, and Auction Sites, Clute Institute International Education Conference, London, June 2015.Lancaster, T. and Clarke, R. (2014). An Observational Analysis Of The Range And Extent Of Contract Cheating From Online Courses Found On Agency Websites ; 8th International

Conference on Complex, Intelligent and Software Intensive Systems (CISIS 2014), Birmingham City University, UK, July 2014.Lancaster, T. and Clarke, R. (2014). An Initial Analysis Of The Contextual Information Available Within Auction Posts On Contract Cheating Agency Websites, 28th IEEE International

Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Applications, University of Victoria, May 2014Lancaster, T. and Clarke, R. (2014). Using Turnitin As A Tool For Attribution In Cases Of Contract Cheating; 3rd Annual Higher Education Academy Conference in Science, Technology,

Engineering and Mathematics, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, April 2014.Clarke, R. and Lancaster, T. (2013). Commercial Aspects Of Contract Cheating; 8th Annual Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, University of Kent,

Canterbury, UK, July 2013.Lancaster, T and Clarke, R (2012). Dealing With Contract Cheating: A Question Of Attribution; 1st Annual Higher Education Academy Conference in Science, Technology, Engineering and

Mathematics, Imperial College, London, April 2012.Lancaster, T and Clarke, R (2010). Staff-Led Individualised Assessment – A Case Study; 11th Annual Higher Education Academy Conference in Information and Computer Sciences, Durham

University, August 2010.Lancaster, T and Clarke, R (2008). How to Succeed at Cheating Without Really Trying: Five Top Tips for Successful Cheating; 9th Annual Higher Education Academy Conference in

Information and Computer Sciences, Liverpool Hope University, August 2008.Clarke, R, and Lancaster, T (2007). Establishing a Systematic Six-Stage Process for Detecting Contract Cheating; The Second International Conference on Pervasive Computing and

Applications, Birmingham City University, July 2007. Lancaster, T and Clarke, R (2007). Assessing Contract Cheating Through Auction Sites – A Computing Perspective; 8th Annual Higher Education Academy Conference in Information and

Computer Sciences, University of Southampton, August 2007.Lancaster, T and Clarke, R (2007). The Phenomena of Contract Cheating, in Student Plagiarism in an Online World: Problems and solutions, Roberts, T. S. (editor), Hershey, Pennsylvania, USA:

Idea Group Inc.Clarke, R and Lancaster, T (2006). Eliminating The Successor To Plagiarism? Identifying The Usage Of Contract Cheating Sites; 2nd Plagiarism: Prevention, Practice and Policy Conference

2006 - Newcastle, UK, June 2006.

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OPPORTUNITIES TO GET MORE INVOLVED

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https://www.academicintegrity.eu

“ENAI is a European platform for promoting academic integrity issues, sharing experiences, ideas, materials, etc, to help higher education institutions prevent academic misconduct  and promote academic and research integrity.”

European Network of Academic Integrity (ENAI)

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https://plagiarism.pefka.mendelu.cz

3rd International Conference, Plagiarism across Europe and Beyond24 - 26 May 2017, Brno, Czech RepublicTheme is “sharing innovative practices in academic integrity”

Plagiarism Conference

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Contract Cheating Awareness

Recommend working closely with students and Student Unions to promote #contractcheating awareness