Thousands of Kenyan graduates who depend on online writing as a source of income will be rendered jobless as United Kingdom initiated a process that would block payments made outside her jurisdiction, it has emerged.
PayPal, the financial company responsible for payments made from firms facilitating essay writing, has been asked to terminate her contracts as the UK places measures to curb academic cheating.
On Thursday, international digital money transfer service, PayPal, announced it was withdrawing its services to essay-writing firms selling to university students.
This was after weeks of pressure from the UK government, which insists stopping payments for essay mills would go a long way in beating academic cheatingPayPal, which is so far the most popular method of processing payments for the essay mills, announced it would contact the companies starting from next week informing them of its intention to stop payments.
“PayPal is working with businesses associated with essay-writing services to ensure our platform is not used to facilitate deceptive and fraudulent practices in education,” PayPal told British broadcaster BBC.
“PayPal will continue to diligently review and take appropriate action on accounts found to be facilitating cheating or otherwise undermining academic integrity,” it said.
Once it is effected, Kenya will be worst hit with statistics showing that majority of the online writing emanates from the country. Apparently, many of those facilitating such activities are either jobless graduates or university students who use them as a source of income.
From the comfort of your house, the Nation reports, graduates can make thousands of money just through doing online research for 'lazy' students outside the country. The essays are used by the students in abroad for assignments and research work.
“Kenya is the hotbed where the writing happens. There is high unemployment and a job working from home is coveted. They have good English and low overheads,” Dr Thomas Lancaster, a senior fellow at Imperial College, London, was quoted by the British press as saying.
An expose by the Nation also revealed recently that PhD, Masters and undergraduate students by research papers, thesis or dissertations within the streets of Kenya towns for as low as Sh10,000.