University students in Australia with a Chinese background are paying randoms on the internet up to $3,500 to sit their exams for them, an SBS investigation has found. And if they’re willing to fork out between $5,000 and $6,000, they can get a stranger to sit the entire subject for them.
That’s the subject matter of Pens for Hire, an undercover investigation airing tonight on SBS 2’s The Feed. Producer Elise Potaka and Chinese journalist Cecily Huang go full Never Been Kissed/ 21 Jump St undercover (digitally speaking), posing as students looking for someone to help them cheat through uni.
“These people [the ones offering their exam-sitting services] are basically advertising their services online, mostly on Chinese language forums and social media,” Potaka told P.TV. “They’ll put up a post saying ‘guaranteed Distinction or above, I can be an exam impersonator for you’.”
In some cases, they found people who were willing to skip getting paid until AFTER the exam results came back.
And just FYI – #NotAllStudents cheat because they’re booze-hounds who can’t put down the goon sack, says Potaka.
“It might be international students who have poor language skills, and that’s why they might not be doing so well and be led to cheat,” she told P.TV.
“But we also spoke to local students who cheated, and there’s one guy who says he was partying too hard and couldn’t be bothered to do the work.”
Same, tho.
Their undercover detective skillz found that once a deal has been struck, the impersonator will make a fake student ID and trot off to the exam, where the supervisor will have absolutely zero idea what’s going on.
“Because Chinese names are not gender-specific, usually, [the impersonators] makes a fake student card and just swaps the photos,” Potoka says.
“And in the exam room, the supervisor will look at the photo, look at the student, see that the photo is the same, and then because when they look at their name, the supervisors can’t usually tell whether it’s a man or a woman from the name, so they’re like ‘Alright, there you go!’.”
Check out this exclusive clip we’ve got our hands on:
And, BTW, here’s another one, but HOLD UP! Don’t watch it if you went to TOP Education Institute or Holmes Institute, because the impersonator calls those education institutions “shitty unis” and that’s just not cool, m8.
If you’re keen to know more, Pens for Hire airs tonight on SBS 2 at 7:30pm.
