Thomas Lancaster

That, plus a day of personal tutees keen to share their challenges with programming operating systems, their plans for new tattoos, catching up with progress at Equity, Diversity and Culture Committee, and occasionally even getting some of the day job done, means I never have time to be bored!

I even recognised many of the graduating students (plus Kelvin, who graduated a few years ago, is now a high flyer at Google, but sneaked in and did his best to throw me).

Really enjoyed graduation at the Royal Albert Hall today. The view from the stage is remarkable (I wish I could sneak photos), but even more importantly, this is celebrating the achievements of our students. They look so different dressed up.

This all barely scratches the surface of our conversation, so thanks to everyone who joined us and posted in the chat. Roll on the main International Day of Action where 15 hours of academic integrity work from around will be showcased. #IDOA2025 academicintegrity.org/aws/ICAI/pt...

As Irene reiterated, the contract cheating industry has not gone away, only changed how it operates in light of AI. I even discovered some new things about the industry. I had no idea one essay mill used to give free package holidays away to students to enjoy while they completed their assignments.

We had a long chat about The Shadow Scholars documentary, the filming timeline, and how AI had impacted both the story itself and the visual presentation of the participants, as well as the ethical complexities surrounding the contract cheating industry.

We discussed Irene's well-deserved lifetime achievement award for her academic integrity work and how her retirement is proving to be anything but quiet.

Square, semi-photorealistic illustration of a conversation: left panel shows a middle-aged man with short, slicked-back hair, thick rectangular glasses and a houndstooth blazer (Thomas Lancaster); right panel shows an older woman with short brown hair wearing a textured cardigan (Irene Glendinning). Two vintage tabletop microphones sit in the foreground between them. The background is a warm, textured paper effect in teal and cream with subtle academic symbols (open book, graduation cap, magnifying glass, network lines) and a soft vignette. The overall tone is thoughtful and editorial, emphasising dialogue, research and the ethical complexity of contract cheating and AI.

I had a very wide ranging and enjoyable conversation with Irene Glendinning tonight about #academicintegrity and contract cheating in the run up to the International Day of Action on October 15 2025. I hope that the video will be available shortly.

Warm, textured square illustration showing two vintage-style studio microphones standing on a circular table, with floating icons (crescent moon, sun, speech bubble), and a calendar marked 1 Oct 2025 plus a subtle #academicintegrity badge - designed to suggest an unscripted, transatlantic conversation.

If you've not yet registered, you're warmly invited to join Irene Glendinning and me tomorrow Wed Oct 1 2025 evening (UK time), daytime (US time) to hear us talk #academicintegrity.

All unscripted. Who knows where the conversation will take us?

academicintegrity.org/aws/ICAI/pt...

Square retro poster styled like a vintage comic cover: a friendly illustrated superhero (masked, cape) stands in a confident pose with halftone and radial stripes behind them. Prominent stacked headline reads ‘Student Comic Strip Contest’. Below it, the theme ‘Everyday integrity: Discovering your superpower’ and the date ‘15 Oct 2025’ are clearly visible. A small badge in the corner shows #IDoA2025 and #everydayintegrity.

With just weeks to go until #IDoA2025, have you encouraged your students to enter the comic strip contest?

The odds of winning are good - but many say that integrity is its own reward.

Check out the rules and entry form:
academicintegrity.org/aws/ICAI/pt...

#academicintegrity #everydayintegrity

And, that is the first day of the new academic year completed. It’s always a pleasure to meet the new students, but the expectations on staff grow every year. I hope everything works itself out for everyone, despite my complete failings on knowing where students can buy frozen chicken feet.

Even now, in 2025, we don't know the full impact of #GenAI technology on learning, or on the Kenyan people employed as academic writers. The documentary respectfully captures the real life situation and is highly recommended viewing for everyone involved in education and beyond.

The documentary film briefly shows the impact of generative AI on the essay mill industry. The 2022 footage with me was filmed months before the release of #ChatGPT, but even then writers and students in the know were accessing AI writing technology.

Next Wednesday (1 October), I'm in online conversation with Irene Glendinning as part of the activity surrounding the International Day of Action for Academic Integrity, and we will be able to talk more about The Shadow Scholars then.

Register here: academicintegrity.org/aws/ICAI/pt...

The timing of the documentary release at the busiest point of the academic year has made it difficult for me to write more and to engage in the surrounding media interest as much as I would like to have done.

Professor Kingori makes the statement about power dynamics incredibly well in the documentary and in her wider activity and I encourage everyone to follow her work.

I truly wish that there were different opportunities available for everyone involved that better used their academic abilities. Unfortunately, that point rarely makes it into the media as it does not fit the narrative.

Whenever my name appears as part of the discussion surrounding Kenya and academic writers, I receive unpleasant responses. I am not campaigning to put Kenyan people out of work and have never done this.

I'd also like to reiterate a message I made several times during filming, and I've made in media interviews. That is, I fully respect the abilities of the Kenyan people working as academic writers, and I can't condemn them for taking on essay writing work.

There is always a difficult ethical discussion to be had regarding whose responsibility it is to prevent contract cheating. Students outsourcing their assignments and using essay writing services are missing out on the opportunity to learn and should not benefit from qualifications are undeserved.

I try and approach research without judgement, but I have no lived experience here. I could never replicate the story that Eloise King, Professor, Patricia Kingori and the team have brought to the screen.

I filmed for the documentary in 2020 and in 2022 and so I make some brief appearances in the film. This is an area that ties in closely with my own academic integrity research.

The Shadow Scholars shows Kenyan people using their undeniable academic abilities to better their position and support their families. The footage is heart warming.

A teal square poster for The Shadow Scholars documentary. The title appears in large white letters above silhouettes of two people working at a laptop. At the bottom, text announces the UK television debut on Channel 4 at 22:00 on Wednesday 24 September 2025.

The Shadow Scholars documentary film on the Kenyan writers working for the #contractcheating industry airs for the first time on UK TV tonight (Wednesday 24 September 2025) at 22:00 on Channel 4.

I had a small role in the documentary, and some of my thoughts follow.

At the same time, there are many intelligent and hard working people who feel that working for an essay mill is their best opportunity to make money. The human cost of this is often the hardest part of this whole dilemma.

As I so often say when I discuss these matters, the contract cheating industry raises many difficult ethical challenges. We don't want students to get qualifications that they don't deserve.

The availability of GenAI systems like ChatGPT has made it harder for academics writers to make a living, although I believe there's still a large market for high quality human written content. Not every students feels comfortable with AI, or trusts the outputs.

I'm quoted in the story discussing some of the latest developments in the contract cheating industry, although as with so many aspects of this problem, it is hard to ascertain exactly what is happening behind the scenes.

Inside the world of Kenya’s ‘shadow scholars’ paid to write essays for UK students Highly educated Kenyans working for essay mills ghostwrite academic work that students pass off as their own

Read the news story "Inside the world of Kenya’s ‘shadow scholars’ paid to write essays for UK students" www.theguardian.com/education/2...

Stylized collage showing a half-organic, half-circuit brain wired to diploma scrolls emerging from an open book labeled “ETHICS.” On the left, a hooded figure types on a laptop beside stacks of coins; on the right, a crouched student buries their face in their hands with a justice-scale thought bubble overhead. Background blocks contain words like “AI,” “ESSAYS,” and “KENYA,” evoking tension among artificial intelligence, academic ghost-writing, and moral responsibility.

What's the latest with the Kenyan essay industry? The Guardian has covered the story in light of the Shadow Scholars film on contract cheating.

A link to the Guardian story is in the first reply.

#academicintegrity