FAYETTEVILLE, Ark.-Students who have other people complete their course work will be suspended for a semester and fail that course, according to a new policy rule at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.
The university's faculty senate voted Wednesday to include "contract cheating" in its list of academic integrity violations, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported.
"Contract cheating" is defined as academic deceit in which students get work done on their behalf and then turn it in for personal academic credit. It also applies to UA students found to be providing work to others.
"It's a monster, just because you have the private industry essentially being willing to do online classes for people, write papers in two to three days or less than 24 hours," Chris Bryson, executive director of UA's Academic Initiatives and Integrity Office, told faculty members in March.
Students were found guilty in 310 of 455 alleged cases of academic dishonesty from May 2017 to May 2018, according to data from the
university.
Bryson said the issue extends beyond commercial
websites.
"More commonly than actually hiring out-at least, anecdotally, what we know-is that they're actually just paying their friends to do their work or have their mom or their dad or their aunt write their paper," Bryson said.