Resolution on Combating Contract Cheating in the EHEA

Introduction

In recent years, higher education institutions (HEIs) globally have seen an increase in gross misconduct in the realm of academic works. According to the European Network for Academic Integrity (ENAI), contract cheating is defined as a –

“Form of academic misconduct when a person uses an undeclared and/or unauthorised third party to assist them to produce work for academic credit or progression, whether or not payment or other favour is involved.”  

Simply put, it is a form of academic fraud whereby students submit the work of a third party and claim it as their own for their own personal gain. Although the phenomenon of contract cheating is not an entirely alien concept, it has seen a drastic increase in recent years. According to a study conducted by Swansea University Medical School in 2018, it was found that between 1978 and 2013, contract cheating was self-reported by a global average of 3.52% of students. By comparison, the percentage of students reported to have made use of contract cheating between 2014 and 2018 rose to 15.7%, representing approximately 31 million students worldwide. Most recently, a rise in this practice was identified during and following the COVID-19 pandemic, where students were subjected to different assessment opportunities, hindering them from fair examination. 

For avoidance of doubt, contract cheating is distinct from legitimate learning support, such as accessibility accommodations, proofreading that does not change intellectual content, academic skills tutoring and the transparent, cited use of AI within institutional policies. 

In an ever-growing digital society, using unapproved external services has become increasingly accessible through the outsourcing of work to artificial intelligence engines and virtual applications, over and above physical third parties. Whilst the ethical use of such sources may prove favourable in complementing traditional uses of research, the use of applications capable of generating texts and different forms of information  poses new challenges to higher education, with the potential to cause significant harm to students by misdirecting them to commercial services that promise success but ultimately endanger their academic and professional futures, whilst also jeopardising academic standards and the credibility of scholarly output, namely diplomas or qualifications. In parallel with the increase of contract cheating, the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) has also witnessed a wave of legislation and institutional policy aimed at prohibiting such practices. While there is no direct legislation issued by the European Union, owing to the matter falling within the national competence of Member States, several states and academic institutions have taken steps to combat this form of misconduct, along with the use of essay mills, plagiarism and other breaches of academic integrity.

Above and beyond legal considerations, contract cheating impinges upon the value of academic integrity – a fundamental principle of the EHEA. Through such abuse, students and academics not only compromise their own credibility but also foster an environment of distrust, undermining the quality of education and research for others.

According to a report issued by the European Commission in 2024, the promotion of academic integrity is integral to safeguarding the fundamental values of higher education, fostering public trust in HEIs and creating a healthier learning and research environment. A breach of integrity, such as contract cheating, disrupts the foundation upon which academic systems rely.

When academic integrity is weakened, so is research quality owing to the fact that falsified or unethically produced work can distort evidence, weaken peer review, and erode confidence in scholarly findings. Over time, these practices diminish institutional credibility, damage the reputation of honest researchers, and create disparities between those who uphold academic standards and those who do not.

Ultimately, contract cheating extends its impact beyond academia. It undermines public trust in higher education systems, devalues qualifications, and risks producing graduates who lack the competencies their credentials imply. This, in turn, affects employers, industries, and societies that rely on higher education institutions to maintain rigorous and ethical standards of knowledge creation and dissemination. Thus in light of the current situation, it is only by preserving the core values of honesty, transparency, and accountability that HEIs can uphold their public responsibility to produce honest results and act as pillars of intellectual progress.

While honest efforts are being done across the EHEA to regulate this developing area, in certain instances this is creating more harm than good. When institutions react with disproportionate force and for unjust reasons, students are put at an unfair disadvantage. Placing a generic blanket of suspicion on all students regardless of their true intentions and research methods leaves detrimental impact on the student community, acting as an obstacle to their academic paths and future careers at largeUnless HEIs set out clear guidelines and just regulations in their Statutes, such provisions seek to only harm students and the ethical use of artificial intelligence as a whole. Through their actions, HEIs are stifling credible works and sources, discrediting effort where it is due, and creating an environment of suspicion and distrust in academia. This issue is amplified where these same institutions go on to use unreliable and inconsistent AI detection tools and software, flagging work which would otherwise be accepted. Whilst regulation is encouraged and welcomed, no regulation that is set to help students should act to their detriment. 

What are European actors in higher education doing?

Although European stakeholders lack direct legislative competence in this area, their influence is far from futile. Quality-assurance agencies have produced a growing body of work aimed at safeguarding academic integrity.

ENQA Academic Integrity Working Group

The ENQA Academic Integrity Working Group’s report of 2024, highlights the rapid rise of AI-driven cheating services, including contract cheating, and urges a coordinated defence across the EHEA through professional development and a shared collective approach, stressing that “academic integrity is everyone’s responsibility” and calling for dedicated resources, coherent management and shared expertise. Meanwhile, the Council of Europe’s European Charter for Researchers provides a normative baseline for responsible research conduct, enabling institutions to embed anti-contract-cheating policies. 

ENAI Working Group on Unauthorised Content Generation

The ENAI Working Group on Unauthorised Content Generation builds on this foundation with three pillars: research and education, policy-document synthesis, and pedagogical-strategy development to reduce risk. By defining unauthorised content generation and producing guidance for detection, prevention and reaction, the group creates a European-wide knowledge base that institutions can adopt.

FAITH (Facing Academic Integrity Threats)

Complementing these efforts, the FAITH (Facing Academic Integrity Threats) project, coordinated by an alliance of universities as part of the Erasmus+ programme, has created benchmarks for integrity policies through the use of questionnaires and focus-group tools to capture factors influencing student conduct, and by delivering training materials, online courses and workshops for managers, teachers and students, forging a holistic, evidence-based approach to deter plagiarism and contract cheating across partner countries.

European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO)

The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) has played a significant role in addressing the broader issue of intellectual property (IP) misuse, including in the academic context. By promoting IP awareness and education across Europe, EUIPO initiatives indirectly support the fight against contract cheating by helping students, educators, and researchers understand the ethical and legal dimensions of academic ownership. Misappropriating researchers’ work for use in commercial essay mills or contract cheating platforms constitutes a clear breach of these IP rights and undermines the integrity of the European research ecosystem.

Bologna Process Structures

Furthermore, the Bologna Process structures, such as the working group on fundamental values and working group on monitoring, have been working on transparency, fairness, and recognition of learning outcomes providing a policy foundation for addressing academic dishonesty. Upholding these principles requires that assessment methods be transparent, equitable, and reflective of genuine student achievement. Contract cheating violates these shared values by distorting fair assessment and eroding trust in qualifications awarded across the European Higher Education Area (EHEA).

Calls to Action

ESU welcomes the current efforts being made across the EHEA to combat contract cheating. Nevertheless, for this issue to be truly tackled, we call upon national higher education decision-makers and stakeholders across the EHEA to take it upon themselves to spread awareness and regulate this field.

Therefore, ESU:

• emphasizes the importance to recognize that students, namely those reading for their PhDs as well as those reading for their Bachelors and Masters, and academic researchers are victims of this phenomenon when their intellectual work is repurposed or sold without consent.  Combating contract cheating requires a dual approach—protecting both the creators of original academic work and the learners misled by unethical actors.
• urges HEIs to guarantee fair process by embedding academic integrity practices into their curriculum and developing clear ethical codes of conduct. No student should face sanctions based solely on the output of an automated tool which is not duly regulated. Institutional responses must be grounded in evidence, not blanket suspicion.
• calls upon national Quality Assurance (QA) agencies to amend their QA frameworks to include the assessment of HEIs capability and readiness to prevent and combat breaches of academic integrity.
• calls upon EHEA member states and higher education institutions to strengthen their national and institutional frameworks against contract cheating, building on the recommendations of the European Network for Academic Integrity (ENAI) and the Council of Europe’s work on academic ethics. Such measures should include clear definitions, robust reporting mechanisms, and effective sanctions, alongside preventive education.
• urges governments and institutions to ensure the protection of students’ and researchers’ intellectual property rights, preventing their academic outputs from being misused, repackaged, or commercially exploited by contract cheating services. Academic research must remain a public good, not a resource for unethical profit making. encourages the development of shared European guidelines on academic integrity and intellectual property protection, fully integrated into the existing frameworks of the EHEA. A harmonised approach, consistent with the Bologna Process principles and the European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance, will help safeguard trust in European higher education and reinforce the culture of fairness, transparency, and accountability that underpins it.
• supports the collaboration and the exchange of information among HEIs, quality assurance agencies and bodies, and relevant public authorities to address cross-border scenarios of contract cheating.
• urges for more awareness and education on academic integrity, including training for students, staff, and researchers alike about the use of ethical research practices and their rights and limitations to their own intellectual property. 
• calls for the regulated use of artificial intelligence as a useful means for enhancing and complementing academic study.