Sums it up pretty well Stephen. At Coventry we can use vivas as part of the academic conduct process when we have suspicions based on your list.

If they don't see it advertised blatantly like this example they are almost certainly going to be approached by such companies either in person, via leafleting the campus or via social media.

Perhaps London Underground should be advised on the error of their ways or shamed into removing this ad by media pressure?

From: Plagiarism <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Stephen Gow <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: 27 April 2016 11:21
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Fwd: essay mills officially advertising on the London Underground

Hello everyone,

It's that time of year again and the essay mills are praying on our anxious students. The discussion fwd below has been raging on the LDHEN mailing list as it seems OKessays.co.uk are advertising at Tube stations near HEIs in London. I've had a few cases of essay writing this year and note the following pattern, which I am sure many of you are familiar with:

A suspiciously good essay from a struggling student (harder to tell with anonymous assignments)
Native level English writing which stands out, when you have a cohort of International students
An eclectic bibliography which doesn't cover what you've covered in class
An intelligent attempt at the essay but way off topic and with references to a wide range of unrelated work which are tenuously linked to the question
Turnitin doesn't help text-matching isn't an issue (the companies obviously have access to a text-matching software package and promise a 'plagiarism free' essay)

Anything I have missed or ideas for how to deal with this?

Regards,

Stephen

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Janette Myers <[log in to unmask]>
Date: 27 April 2016 at 09:51
Subject: essay mills officially advertising on the London Underground
To: [log in to unmask]

Dear All

I’ve been really shocked to see an essay mill, OKessay.co.uk officially advertising on posters on the London Underground. We all know it happens and have seen fly posters, but this seems to say it’s an acceptable thing to do. I got a photo of one today at South Kensington and intend to report it to the Advertising Standards Authority, they are near universities, there’s one at Euston, so if you work at a London HEI have a look at your nearest station. I know they measure the number of complaints, so wondered if anyone else wanted to make a separate one, citing the one at South Kensington, this is the link https://www.asa.org.uk/Consumers/How-to-complain.aspx and whether ALDinHE could complain as an association which would carry more weight?

Regards

Janette

I work at SGUL Tues-Thurs

Dr Janette Myers SFHEA

Senior Lecturer in Student Learning and Support,

Institute of Medical and Biomedical Education,

6th floor Hunter Wing,

St George's, University of London

Cranmer Terrace

London

SW17 0RE

020 8725 0616

Stephen Gow

Academic Integrity Coordinator

Academic Support Office

Harry Fairhurst Building, Room LFA/132
University of York
Heslington
YORK
YO10 5DD
01904 321135

[log in to unmask]

Plagiarism Advice Academic Network - China and UK

Gow, S. (2014). A cultural bridge for academic integrity? Mainland Chinese master’s graduates of UK institutions returning to China. International Journal for Educational Integrity, 10(1).

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