Contract cheating isn’t just wrong it is white collar crime (CMM March 28). In fact, as UNSW researcher Alex Steel points out, it can be a bunch of them. A learned reader points to Professor Steel’s paper on criminal offences that student consumers and providers of contract cheating services could be charged with – including fraud, forgery and conspiracy.  The problem is in the great scheme of human wrongdoing passing another’s essay as one’s one may not enthuse the authorities into prosecution. So, Professor Steel suggests, a statutory offence punished by a fine, could be created. “The nature of contract cheating is such a fundamental rejection of the expected behaviour of students that its use by students is more than academic misconduct and passes into the realm of criminal wrongdoing,” he argues.

As a way of demonstrating that Australia takes seriously the credibility of its qualifications and is determined to defend the integrity of its international education industry, this would be hard to beat.