2006 to 2026
20 Years of Contract Cheating
Robert Clarke and Dr Thomas Lancaster established the named field through research into students outsourcing computing assignments. Over two decades, researchers and practitioners worldwide have broadened that agenda across prevalence, detection, assessment, policy, law and changing digital markets.
The 2006 origin paper
Robert Clarke and Dr Thomas Lancaster co-authored Eliminating the successor to plagiarism? Identifying the usage of contract cheating sites. Dr Lancaster presented the paper at the 2nd International Plagiarism Conference in Newcastle/Gateshead, held from 19 to 21 June 2006. Clarke was not present at the conference. The paper coined the term contract cheating.
The term was intended to reach beyond narrower descriptions such as essay mills. The original evidence concerned students outsourcing computing and programming assignments through the freelance site RentACoder. The researchers classified 99 of 803 bid requests examined as contract cheating, or 12.3%. They also identified 236 platform users associated with this activity; only 8.1% had made a single request.
Primary source: Eliminating the successor to plagiarism?
The Clarke–Lancaster research programme
The field has grown through major independent contributions from researchers around the world. Its enduring research questions, however, closely reflect problems that Clarke and Lancaster made explicit at the outset and developed in their subsequent joint work.
A name broad enough for the problem
The 2006 term captured outsourcing beyond essays, including computing and programming work. That broader framing remains necessary as services move across disciplines, file-sharing platforms, social media and human–AI production chains.
Evidence from the supply side
Clarke’s platform investigations treated public digital traces, repeat requests and intermediary agencies as evidence. Current web-traffic, marketplace and platform studies extend that same supply-side line of enquiry with new methods and safeguards.
A practical detection process
Their 2007 paper set out a systematic six-stage process for detecting contract cheating, moving the field from recognition towards reproducible investigation.
Prevention, policy and changing markets
The founding paper called for automated support, redesigned assessment and clearer academic policy, while recognising subcontracting and commercial intermediaries. Later work has tested, qualified and broadened each of those priorities rather than making the original problem disappear.
Timeline
This selective timeline contains 23 entries tracing research, policy, legislation and enforcement from 2006 to 2026.
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Dr Thomas Lancaster presents Eliminating the successor to plagiarism?, co-authored with Robert Clarke, at the 2nd International Plagiarism Conference in Newcastle. Clarke was not present at the conference. The paper coins the term contract cheating.
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Clarke and Lancaster publish a systematic six-stage process for detecting contract cheating at the Second International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Applications in Birmingham.
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The UK Academic Misconduct Benchmarking Research project develops a plagiarism and misconduct penalty tariff. It recommends expulsion as the most serious response to purchased assignments.
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Walker and Townley publish Contract cheating: a new challenge for academic honesty? in the Journal of Academic Ethics, 10(1), 27–44.
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Rigby, Burton, Balcombe, Bateman and Mulatu publish the first economic study of essay-buying behaviour, Contract cheating and the market in essays, in the Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 111, 23–37.
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A Sydney Morning Herald investigation by Amy McNeilage and Lisa Visentin reports that students had paid the MyMaster service to supply assignments and sit online tests. The report brings the service and the wider risks of commercial contract cheating to national attention.
Students enlist MyMaster website to write essays, assignments
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The International Center for Academic Integrity launches the first International Day of Action Against Contract Cheating.
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Draper and Newton publish A legal approach to tackling contract cheating? in the International Journal for Educational Integrity, 13, article 11.
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Curtis and Clare publish How prevalent is contract cheating and to what extent are students repeat offenders? in the Journal of Academic Ethics, 15(2), 115–124.
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, updated in and
QAA first publishes Contracting to Cheat in Higher Education in October 2017. It updates the guidance in 2020 and publishes the third edition on 20 September 2022.
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Newton publishes How common is commercial contract cheating in higher education and is it increasing? A systematic review in Frontiers in Education.
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Bretag and colleagues publish Contract cheating: a survey of Australian university students in Studies in Higher Education, 44(11), 1837–1856. The study surveyed 14,086 students and 1,147 educators across eight universities.
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QAA publishes Essay Mills and the Case for Legislation.
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Ireland enacts Section 43A of the Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) (Amendment) Act 2019. It criminalises providing and advertising cheating services, with penalties for providers and advertisers of up to €100,000, up to five years’ imprisonment, or both.
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Amigud and Lancaster publish 246 reasons to cheat: An analysis of students’ reasons for seeking to outsource academic work in Computers & Education, 134, 98–107. The paper analyses Twitter discourse about students’ reasons for cheating.
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Australia amends the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act 2011 to create a criminal offence for providing or advertising academic cheating services. The stated penalties include up to two years’ imprisonment and fines up to A$105,000.
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Robert Clarke, co-originator of contract cheating research, dies.
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A reported surge in contract cheating and file-sharing site use accompanies the shift to online and remote assessment during the COVID-19 pandemic. Lancaster and Cotarlan publish a 2021 study of contract cheating by STEM students through a file-sharing website.
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England’s Skills and Post-16 Education Act 2022 receives Royal Assent. It makes providing, arranging or advertising cheating services for financial gain to post-16 students in England a criminal offence.
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Australia’s Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency announces action to block access to 40 commercial academic cheating websites.
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Times Higher Education publishes Tom Williams’s ChatGPT threatens future of essay mills. The article reports early signs of changing essay-mill business models and quotes Dr Thomas Lancaster predicting a “turning point for contract cheating”.
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The International Center for Academic Integrity renames the International Day of Action Against Contract Cheating as the International Day of Action for Academic Integrity, broadening its focus beyond contract cheating.
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Australia’s Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency brings its first proceedings under the 2020 cheating-services law against a major US-based online study-help platform, concerning three assessments at Monash University in 2021–22. On 27 March 2026, the Federal Court makes declarations following the platform’s admissions and Justice Craig Lenehan imposes an A$500,000 penalty plus A$150,000 costs for three contraventions. The judgment is cited as Chief Executive Officer of the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency v Chegg, Inc. [2026] FCA 330 and represents the first successful Federal Court outcome under the legislation.
TEQSA announcement, Times Higher Education report, and case record, 2026 FCA 330
Frequently asked questions
When was the term contract cheating coined?
Robert Clarke and Dr Thomas Lancaster co-authored the paper that coined the term. Dr Lancaster presented it at the 2nd International Plagiarism Conference from 19 to 21 June 2006; Clarke was not present.
What did the original 12.3% figure measure?
It measured 99 of 803 bid requests examined on RentACoder and classified as contract cheating. It was not an estimate that 12.3% of students contract cheated.
When did QAA first publish its contract cheating guidance?
QAA first published Contracting to Cheat in Higher Education in October 2017. It updated the guidance in 2020 and published the third edition in September 2022.
What happened in the Australian Federal Court in March 2026?
On 27 March 2026, after the platform admitted three contraventions, the Federal Court of Australia imposed an A$500,000 penalty plus A$150,000 costs in the first successful Federal Court outcome under Australia’s academic-cheating-services legislation.
How to cite this page
Suggested citation:
ContractCheating.com. (2026). 20 years of contract cheating. https://contractcheating.com/twenty-years