University students are about to face a crackdown on cheating.

One Brisbane university has uncovered emails from people offering to do assignments for money.

It warns cheating can lead to expulsion.

Lily Nothling reports.

TRANSCRIPT

The marks are in and students who contract others to do their assignments for them are getting an F.

Sheona Thomson, QUT: “Contract cheating, if you’re found to have undertaken that activity, would be seen as very serious, and the largest penalty is that you’re expelled.”

This type of cheating is harder to spot than plagiarism, because the work can’t be detected by online originality trackers.

Student representatives say the pressure of balancing a busy lifestyle can push students to the edge.

Isobella Powell, QUT Student Guild: “Students don’t just study, they also work a lot, so when they get caught up in stress they don’t really understand the implications of their actions a lot of the time.”

For many students, cheating is off the cards.

Vox 1: “You don’t get the same rewards and feeling of when you actually do well.”

Vox 2: “I’m not really learning anything if I cheat.”

Vox 3: “I’d feel bad afterwards, I’d feel so bad.”

But for others, contract cheating provides a fast fix.

Websites like this one make it more than easy for students to cheat.

With a click of a button, you’re connected to someone who’ll outsource your assignment.

It’ll get back to you, completed and ready to submit.

Unis say the first step in addressing the problem is making students feel supported and confident they can do the work themselves.

Sheona Thomson, QUT: “At the end of the day, if someone has earned a degree without doing the work, being evaluated on the work required for that degree, then how do they know they can do what the degree warrants they can do.”

And that could make or break a career.

Lily Nothling, QUT News.