UK Essays is one of the most popular websites for students to purchase custom written essays, dissertations, reports, and other academic papers. Founded in 2003 and based in the UK, ukessays.com has grown to serve hundreds of thousands of students annually from around the world. While the company aims to provide a valuable service to students, its business model of writing papers for purchase also brings ethical questions that are worth exploring.
How UK Essays Works
UK Essays operates using a network of thousands of freelance writers who complete academic assignments for students. When a student places an order, they are prompted to provide details on the paper such as length, discipline, academic level, sources required, and deadline. This information is then passed to UK Essays’ team of writers. Students can specify if they want a Native English Speaker to complete the work.
Students are able to choose from three quality tiers for papers – standard, premium, and priority. Standard quality papers are completed by junior writers while premium and priority papers are handled by senior, experienced writers. Tight deadlines also incur rush delivery fees. For dissertations and lengthy reports, there is an option for writers to complete stages of the paper and deliver draft segments for feedback prior to the final submission.
Once a writer is assigned, they research and complete the paper from scratch according to the provided guidelines. They have access to academic databases and resources in order to find credible sources. A plagiarism check is run on the completed paper before it is delivered to the student. Students are able to request free revisions within 10 days if they find issues with the quality of content or have new feedback.
With UK Essays, students pay for the service upon delivery of the completed paper. Pricing varies based on academic level, word count, quality tier selected, and deadline. On average, students can expect to pay between £10-30 per page of written content for standard service depending on these factors. Volume discounts are provided for orders over 20 pages in length.
Pros and Cons
Supporters argue that services like UK Essays fulfill an important need for students. With increasing demands on their time due to jobs, family responsibilities or other commitments outside the classroom, some students rely on paper writing companies to complete their coursework so they can focus energies elsewhere and still earn their degrees. Companies provide on-demand access to writing help at affordable rates for all-night deadlines or particularly challenging assignments.
Others view such businesses as detrimental to the goals and integrity of higher education. They argue that writing papers for purchase feeds into an academic culture where students come to view their education as a commodity that can be bought rather than a learning process. It diminishes the value of independent thought and original work. There are also concerns about consistency and quality – while writers are screened and monitored, consistency across thousands of freelancers can be difficult to maintain.
An even greater issue is the potential for plagiarism. Although companies integrate plagiarism detection software and defend their strict policies against copying content, the opportunity for direct plagiarism of outside sources or self-plagiarism of a writer’s own previously submitted work remains. Additionally, some students may be tempted to submit the completed paper as wholly their own work rather than a purchased service, undermining the academic honesty policy of their institutions.
UK Essays does prohibit direct resale of completed papers and states all works are intended for research and reference use only. Enforcement is difficult once a paper has been delivered to a student. There is an inherent conflict of interest in writing original custom papers for repeated sale. Detection is also challenging as papers will not trigger plagiarism software if paraphrased well and sources changed between clients.
Impacts on Learning
The most substantial criticism of paper writing companies is that they have negative impacts on student learning. Those who order custom papers for “authentic” evaluation gain qualitative assessment and feedback from instructors, but gain little substantive knowledge themselves from the experience. At best, limited information is gleaned from skimming a completed paper in order to regurgitate content on an exam or discussion. Worse, many students submit papers with no engagement at all.
Rather than learn disciplinary style, writing mechanics and critical thinking through practice, students circumvent these learning opportunities. Research has shown that composing unique papers helps cement relationships between ideas and fosters deeper understanding compared to last-minute studying of finished work. Writing is an crucial part of the learning process across many fields. By outsourcing this important learning activity, students miss out on cognitive and skill-building benefits. This can set them up for problems in future coursework where independent analysis and strong written communication is expected and required.
Supporters counter that services still allow time-strapped students an opportunity to complete degree requirements, gain credentials, and later make up for learning deficits on the job or in further education later in their careers. Empirical research on the long term impacts is lacking, and some suggest it cultivates an approach to learning that values credentials over comprehension. This dynamic may come at the expense of both individual students and societal standing as whole if graduates lack proficiency in core competencies due to undeveloped writing, research and reasoning capacities.
Legal and Ethical Considerations
At a policy level, academic institutions ban utilizing third parties to complete substantive portions of assessed coursework precisely because it circumvents learning and encourages dishonest practices like plagiarism. Companies defend their services as providing reference materials rather than finished assignments, creating a gray area that is difficult to regulate at the level of national education systems.
Instead, many feel the onus should be on students to take individual responsibility for their own learning and complete their own work honestly. While external pressures and lack of support can factor into decisions to outsource, personal accountability is an important value that companies may undermine by normalizing an alternative to independent effort.
Debate also questions whether paper companies should be held responsible if their services enable or encourage academic dishonesty, even if unintentionally through lack of oversight once papers are delivered. As businesses focused on profiting from student demand, some argue they have an ethical duty to avoid knowingly aiding violations of academic integrity policies through more rigorous screening, licensing of writers, and tracking of assignments.
Overall, there are reasonable perspectives on both sides of this issue. Services aim to fulfill student needs, but their business models exist in tension with goals of higher education. As technology influences learning models, policymakers and the public must consider these challenges carefully in order to balance access, standards and quality. UK Essays and similar companies raise important concerns about academic integrity, learning outcomes and the social role of the university experience worth continued discussion.
UK Essays operates a large paper writing service that is widely used by students but also presents some ethical dilemmas regarding academic honesty and quality of learning. While meeting real demands, peer-to-peer assignment markets risk negatively impacting the very institutions they serve unless better regulated or redesigned with educational priorities in mind over commercial ones alone. The issue deserves ongoing public debate as technology and student needs continue to evolve.
Andrew Stroud