Lately the news was all about the American universities and the “snowplough” parents who were ready to pay millions to guarantee their children’s admission.
It seems the situation here in the UK is very alarming too. According to a study by the University of Swansea more than 15.7% of students admitted to cheating.
The use of essay mills being viral in the UK has made it easier for student to cheat, knowing that most companies guarantee their ability to cheat anti-plagiarism software.
One can wonder how can they do it? Well, one of the most recent case being investigated at City University London gave us the answer and brought some light to a much bigger problem, actual lecturers from those universities decided to take part in this business.
Blanche de Bernardi, a french student at City University London in criminology, allegedly used the services of a well-known lecturer from Cambridge and UCL to give her private tutoring lessons on how to write her final dissertation.
After a few lessons she realised how time consuming this process would be for her and she offered her tutor to write the dissertation himself. According to a source it only took £3.500 to convince him.
Unfortunately for her the university raised some concerns whether she actually wrote it and decided to investigate further.
Our source at City University London refused to give us more details, but confirmed Blanche de Bernardi was still undergoing an investigation for alleged plagiarism and cheating.
It is unclear what consequences she will face as it is for the disciplinary committee to decide, but according to the University guidelines she could be expelled, her diploma revoked and banned from ever being able to study at City university or any of their partner universities
