The revelation a company has ghost-written assignments to order for Chinese students in New Zealand is ''disturbing'' but there is no evidence it has been used at University of Otago, international pro-vice-chancellor Prof Sarah Todd says.
The existence of the cheating service was reported by Fairfax yesterday, with the the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) anonymously tipped off about the service three months ago.
The company, which marketed itself online as Assignment4U, reportedly used a network of tutors to write assignments for Chinese-speaking students at New Zealand tertiary institutions.
A Chinese student at Otago University, who wished to remain anonymous, yesterday said it was likely Otago students were among those buying assignments online.
The student said she had heard from Chinese friends studying in Christchurch that students there had ''definitely'' paid for assignments. She had not heard of specific examples at Otago, but thought similar activity would ''probably'' be going on at all institutions.
Prof Todd said the university was not aware of the cheating service until seeing the article yesterday. Asked if the university was disappointed not to have been told about the issue by NZQA earlier, she said: ''It seems surprising that we weren't informed.''
The fact such a service was out there was ''disturbing'' and the university was interested in the results of an NZQA investigation.
However, there was no evidence Otago students were buying ghost-written assignments, she said.
Minister for Tertiary Education Steven Joyce, when asked why NZQA had not informed Otago University of the issue, said Universities New Zealand had been told following the initial tip-off. If any universities were disappointed at not being told ''they would have to take that up with Universities NZ'', Mr Joyce said.
The possibility of commercial cheating services had ''been on the radar'' before the tip-off from a former employee of the company in question, Mr Joyce said.
''We have had concerns about the potential for this kind of activity for some time. We made a law change in 2011 to make it possible to prosecute commercial cheating services.''
Mr Joyce did not believe New Zealand was an ''easy target'' for people wanting to cheat, as claimed by the tip-off provider. Prof Todd said Otago had rigorous processes in place to prevent people from cheating, which included computer soft-ware which detected plagiarism.
''I would also hope that when somebody was marking ... [that if the student's] English ability seemed different to what they knew of the student then that would [prompt them] to look at it a little bit more,'' she said.
The university had come across other suspicious activities, including individuals offering to buy other students' essays ''presumably for on-selling''.
She said there was ''no evidence to suggest'' cheating was more prevalent among Chinese students.
A disciplinary report released by the university earlier this year showed last year 45 students were dealt with by Otago University for cheating and other dishonest practices, including a student who handed in an assignment paid for online. The report did not say the assignment was ghost-written.
