Last year 139 essays or dissertations were bought off the website UKEssays.com by students at the University of Sheffield, compared to only 24 bought by students at Hallam.

The Sheffield Steel Press reported in November that cases of plagiarism at the University were at record numbers but these latest revelations indicates that parents may also be to blame.

UKEssays.com, who boast their essays are 100 per cent plagiarism detection proof and guaranteed to receive a 2:1 or first, say many middle class parents are buying the essays for their children and sometimes even as presents.

In a statement the website said: "The spiralling costs of a quality education has led to parents having to take control and ensure that their children succeed."

But a University of Sheffield spokesperson has maintained that such incidents are in breach of plagiarism policy.

She said: "The submission of bought or commissioned work amounts to plagiarism and implies a clear intention to deceive examiners.

"Penalties may be imposed ranging from refusal of credit for the assessed work to expulsion from the University in extremely serious cases."

However Barclay Littlewood, CEO of UKEssays.com, has blasted the University of Sheffield for failing its students and says his company is doing nothing wrong.

He said: "One cannot commit plagiarism by buying anything. That's an absurd assertion. Plagiarism is the passing off of others' work or ideas as your own – not a buyer behaviour."

He added: "Sheffield University would rather ban our service and bury their heads in the sand than deal with the actual issue. Students are being force fed the same essay titles and exam papers year after year to cut costs.

"Contact time with lecturers is falling every semester and lecturers aren't being given the resources to learn their students' writing styles and academic ability.

"Universities see us as the problem, but there is no doubt we are being used as a smoke screen for their own issues. Plagiarism isn't their main threat anyway, it's the inadequate content they teach their students that's their main threat."

Littlewood said his service was no different from text books, academic journals or websites such as Google, and has even called to work with universities.

He said: "It was only last year that we called upon universities to discuss partnering, but the call was never responded to. They deter many honest students from using us with warnings, losing us business, and actually attracting cheats to use us."

The University of Sheffield was the second highest consumer of UKEssays.com in the Yorkshire and Humberside region behind the University of York where 142 students bought essays.

Nationally Nottingham University students were the biggest cheats, buying 363 essays or dissertations. They were followed by Royal Holloway where 202 students used UKEssays.com and in third place was Oxford University with 180 buyers.


This story is from the University of Sheffield's student paper, the Steel Press. Visit their webpage for more stories.