PSA Discovery of the New Pandemic: A Contract Cheating

Students are required to create Public Service Announcements (PSAs) in Kursus Integriti dan Anti-Rasuah (KIAR) - UHE3432 as one of the assessments. They are tasked with creating a video that will convey the message of the KIAR content, either the penalties, true bribery cases, whistle-blower protection, or the importance of integrity. The student should also be able to explain the message of the PSA and how the contents of KIAR are reflected in the PSA. The PSA should be distributed to the general public to raise public awareness of KIAR and its contents.

Students’ creativity should be recognised when they do their best to educate people and spread awareness. The PSA assignment focuses on various themes, including corruption and its effects, overcoming corruption, and generational collapse in a society without integrity. In one of the small-scale studies, one of the groups conducted an educational integrity theme disguised as a potential client for a new pandemic they had discovered: contract cheating services. Their dedication and resourcefulness should be applauded, as it led to the exposure of unethical practices and behaviour in the academic world.

Contract cheating involves students engaging a third party to complete an assignment on their behalf. There is a growing problem of academic dishonesty, which can have serious consequences, including the devaluing of degrees, the corruption of the academic system, and the erosion of trust between students and instructors. It is important to combat this unethical practice and ensure students are held accountable for their actions.

It is common to see such services advertised on social media such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram as well as on online shopping or e-commerce platforms such as Shopee or Lazada. In the Google search results, it is evident that contract cheating services hide behind the real intention and purpose of providing assistance to students. In fact, they use names like ‘assignment helper’, ‘assignment assistance’ and ‘students’ life saviour’ to manipulate things where students are not obligated to complete assignments, only to pay the minimum charges and await the A+ guarantee results. This is nothing more than a scam, as these services often fail to deliver on these promises. Moreover, they provide plagiarised content and use students’ personal details for malicious activities. This is unethical as it defeats the purpose of education, which is to gain knowledge and skills. It also undermines the integrity of the educational system and harms the students in the long run.

The most shocking discovery is that the services are as low as RM20.00 and even if students (potential customers who disguised themselves) try to withdraw from the service, negotiations occur to prevent the customer from doing so. For students to use their services, the prices can be reduced to RM10.00 with various discounts. This indicates that the service providers have something to hide and are not interested in providing quality services. They are more interested in exploiting customers and making a quick profit. The group's efforts proved successful, as they uncovered the unethical activities of the contract cheating services. They also identified the various strategies that the services employed to lure unsuspecting students into engaging in their services.

These services make many good promises, such as completely revised work, properly structured content, 100% original work, and meeting all requirements of the students, making them appear appealing and enticing students to take a shortcut. Even more shocking is that contract cheating services use the university logo as evidence that students from the university are using their services. This is done to convince potential customers that even prestigious university students use their services. These services use the university logos as a way to boost their credibility, even though they have no affiliation with the university. They are also trying to create a false sense of legitimacy and trustworthiness that their services are reliable. This can have devastating effects on the reputation of the university and its students. Therefore, universities must take strong measures to ensure that contract cheating services do not use their logos for their own gain.

PSAs allow students to reveal the truth of integrity in different scopes, cultivate a sense of academic responsibility, foster an academic integrity culture among their peers and ensure a healthy learning environment. All these measures can assist universities in protecting their reputation, preserving the integrity of their students, and developing more responsible citizens.

The writer is a Senior Lecturer and Course Coordinator for Kursus Integriti dan Anti Rasuah (KIAR) - UHE3432, Centre for Human Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP).
E-mail  : hadijah@ump.edu.my