But this is not to say that all or any of such agencies are dishonest in their dealings or incompetent to provide the services they claim to offer. But possibilities of black sheep among these, however, can not be ruled out.
Experiences can vary as was evident from statements of some other students who were approached for comments.
Harneet who finished her Business Studies last year and is currently on an open work visa, was highly critical of one such ‘assessment help’ individual.
“I paid for proofreading and grammatical errors of my assignment and presumably it should have been error free when I got it back. But from the score I received it was clear that I would have been better off checking it myself. For me it was a rip off.”
She also claimed to know another MIT student (since returned to India) who paid an online agency to ‘edit and improve’ his assignment, but was instead penalised for plagiarism by his institute.
Some students, on the contrary, believe that without someone’s help, it would be very difficult for international students to survive.
”I do not mind paying because I know my grammar is weak, and I get what I want, including good marks,” one satisfied student commented.
Many assignment agencies (or individuals) also openly solicit business by offering students to “write assignments from a scratch”. They claim to have experts who would compose “100% unique” assignment with guarantee of “100% high marks.”
Another online service provider who regularly advertises in FB student groups, goes a step further “our writers are real maestros” …who can take the burden off you… write papers such as essays, case studies, critical analysis…”
A former Academic Staff Member of Wintec and with over a decade’s experience in NZ’s tertiary training sector commented “Taking help to write and submitting someone else’s work as your own is unethical and could do more harm than good. But I am aware this practice is widespread especially amongst Indian students. Continue reading P 3
