British school cracks down on plagiarism

LIVERPOOL, England, Jan. 16 (UPI) -- Concerns about plagiarism have prompted the University of Liverpool in England to launch a staff course to help professors spot academic cheats.

Students, particularly in law and humanities tracks, are paying up to $3,000 for college term papers -- including doctoral dissertations -- written by online essay mills, the Liverpool Daily Post reported. Many times, parents are the deal makers for papers from sites like UKessays.com, the newspaper said.

Though essay sites say they supply such essays as a foundation for students' own work, "we all know this claim is absurd," the university's vice chancellor Drummond Bone told the newspaper.

"Google has said it has banned these companies from its advert search engines," Bone said. "Making life harder for these cynical web 'essay mills' is a step in the right direction."