Students buy research papers for as little as SR200

University students here are paying between SR200 and SR800 to have other people write their essays and produce their research, Arab News has discovered.
Several students are also involved in copying the research papers of others and presenting them as their own.
There are several places on Al-Jamaa Street where a student can find someone to produce their work. Many of the people working there are expatriates.
Most of these operators refuse to produce papers in science subjects because they do not have the expertise. They mainly write papers on business management, marketing, accounting, media, psychology and sociology, Arab News found.
A Sudanese man who operates on the street said the place where he works receives about 200 requests a year.
“A student would give us a proposal or points that must be included in the research. It takes about a month to complete,” he said.
A student at King Abdulaziz University (KAU), Abdul Rahman Al-Saadi, told Arab News some of his fellow students are involved in this illegal practice.
“They buy their research claiming they have no time to produce the work. But now professors have ways to reveal this fake research. Several students have already been punished for doing so,” he said.
A professor of English linguistics at KAU who did not want to be named, said there are ways to deal with research that has been bought or plagiarized.
“We know there are some students buying research to graduate from university. However, professors at KAU have their own way to check up on this.
“I have a software program to determine whether the research is original or not. In any case, I always have discussions with my students about their work including asking how they collected the data and analyzed it,” he said. “Also, I require them to present their research in class to open it for more discussion. This gives an indication whether or not the student has done original research.”
Farooq Al-Khateeb, an economics professor at KAU, said experienced academics can usually determine whether students have lied about their work. Some students present work that operators have duplicated for several other students, which is then easy to detect, he said.
“The university has allowed professors to punish students who buy their research. Some professors delete fake research and let their students fail. However, there are some inexperienced professors who fail to adequately check the work of students,” he said.