HONG KONG - Students condemned the hiring of ghostwriters after a Hong Kong-based company was found selling academic papers to university students worldwide.
An investigation by the South China Morning Post found that online business Ivythesis has for 10 years been supplying students from as far afield as Africa and the Middle East with essays - for HK$125 a page.
Henry Lui, 12, from Sha Tin College, says it is the academic equivalent of hiring someone to forge a legal signature.
The Post obtained from the website a 2,000-word essay reviewing the city's public-service broadcasting, which one academic said 'isn't too bad'.
Baptist University associate journalism professor Judith Clarke said the essay wasn't A-plus work. 'It passes muster as a rather lacklustre essay by a student in the upper forms of a school, or even a very mediocre undergrad,' she said.
Education lawmaker Cheung Man-kwong described the operation as an 'unforgivable fraud' and urged the commercial crime bureau to investigate the company.
Cheung said: 'The bureau should tackle this issue because the company is based here and it encourages people to fraudulently obtain their degrees.'