Add The Shadow Scholars: Fake Essay Scandal to your watchlist
They’re the brains-for-hire at the epicentre of a billion-dollar industry – over 40,000 young Kenyans are producing essays, dissertations, degrees and PhDs for students and even academics, tens of thousands of miles away, who claim the results as their own work.
These “shadow scholars” have been working, secretly, for around a decade. I’m half-Kenyan and worked in Kenya for many years, but I knew nothing about this clandestine industry. That changed in 2019 when, as a fellow of Somerville College, Oxford, I attended a lunchtime seminar at the Oxford Internet Institute.
Its eye-opening report stated that the main market for this work are students in the US, Britain, Australia and Canada. Intrigued, I travelled to Nairobi to find out more. In my documentary for Channel 4, The Shadow Scholars, I talk to those involved and discover that this isn’t just about academic dishonesty or lazy students cheating the system. It made me question who gets to learn, who gets to earn and who gets left behind. This invisible workforce raises uncomfortable truths about power, hidden labour and the value of our education system.
How widespread is the problem? Reports suggest around 25 per cent of students in the US and up to 11 per cent of UK students have used these services. But the figures rely on self-reports, so are likely to be an underestimate.
The industry survives, despite the advent of AI tools such as ChatGPT, which we know some students have been using to generate essays, as human writers offer guaranteed originality with their “AI-proof” services – as the work is original, plagiarism software rarely catches it. They also run their work through detection software before sending it to their student clients.
Anyone can contact these ghostwriters and fees can range from £20 for a short essay, £200 for a dissertation to £10,000 for a PhD, with the cost for work in the sciences and medicine tending to be more expensive. Payment is instant and delivery discreet. There are hundreds of accounts on social media platforms, internet search engines or freelance platforms.
In 2022, the UK passed legislation making it illegal to advertise or offer cheating services such as essay mills. Google pledged to block ads for essay services and YouTube removed thousands of promotional videos. But loopholes remain and the ads keep popping up, often disguised as “academic support” or “study help”.
Some universities have stepped up their efforts, redesigning assessments and attempting to use software to detect suspicious submissions. But enforcement is patchy and many institutions refuse to accept what’s happening. To date, no prosecutions have been reported.
The young Kenyans doing the work (there are smaller industries in India and the Philippines) are highly educated and are fluent in academic English. In a country where formal employment is hard to come by, some earn up to £1,000 a month, the same average wage as Kenyan doctors. But they get no credit for the work that they do. During exam season and when deadlines loom, they can expect to work a minimum of 12 hours a day helping students to turn in work on time. I spoke to Mercy, a single mother who writes thousands of words every night to support her young daughter.
As well as experiencing burnout, many feel a sense of resentment that they wouldn’t enjoy the same employment opportunities as the students they produce essays for. With ever-tightening visa restrictions, they are prevented from taking up the lucrative jobs around the world that many Western students enjoy on the back of their essays.
This ghostwriting industry provides income for many Kenyan graduates. But it also reinforces inequalities and perpetuates the idea that Africans need educating when, in fact, countries like Kenya are educating the world. The writers are doing the intellectual heavy lifting, yet remain excluded from the institutions they help to prop up. Maybe one day, we can credit the young Kenyans for their intellectual contribution.
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