The world of Kenya's shadow scholars paid to write essays for UK students
5 hours ago
- #Global education
- #Ghostwriting
- #Academic cheating
- A secret industry generates billions by ghostwriting academic papers for students globally.
- Kenya is a hotspot with an estimated 40,000 ghostwriters, many in Nairobi.
- Ghostwriters are highly educated but face job scarcity, turning to essay mills for income.
- A new film explores the lives of Kenyan ghostwriters and the global academic cheating industry.
- Ghostwriters create fake IDs to appear as UK/US writers to attract clients.
- Top earners can make as much as doctors, with prices ranging from £1/page to thousands per dissertation.
- Essay mills were banned in England in 2022, but students still use them or AI tools like ChatGPT.
- The film highlights the unfairness of the system and the invisibility of Kenyan scholars' contributions.