‘Misleading’ advert for essay-writing service banned by watchdog over promoting cheating

The Advertising Standards Authority rules Oxbridge Essays website implied students could submit purchased essays with no risks

Oxbridge Essays is looking to appeal the ruling against the company (Getty Images)

An advert for an essay-writing website for students has been banned for promoting cheating.

The advertising watchdog has ruled that Oxbridge Essays “misleadingly” implied students could submit purchased essays from the website as their own without risks.

The company was also told by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to remove the misleading claim “the vast majority” of its writers were educated or had taught at Oxford or Cambridge.

A number of claims were included on the homepage of the website – including “it has never been easier to get the grades you wanted” and it was “100 per cent guaranteed plagiarism-free”.

The company argued the website advises customers its essays should be used only as a “personalised study guide” and they should not be submitted.

However, the ASA ruled the website did not make it “sufficiently clear” to consumers they could not hand in purchased essays as their own without ramifications.

Oxbridge Essays is one of a number of essay-writing websites, also commonly referred to as “essay mills”, which have been ordered to change their marketing in the past year.

In September, university leaders called on the government to make companies who offer essay-writing services to students illegal, amid fears that they are undermining the integrity of degrees.

The ruling comes on the same day applicants to Oxford are told if they have received an offer.

An Oxbridge Essays spokesperson said: “Like all businesses, we are constantly working on how we can improve our marketing messages to best reflect the product. With this in mind, we have made changes on our website to reflect some of the ASA’s findings.

“However, we did disagree with some of the ASA’s ruling and are in the process of appealing to the independent reviewer, Sir Hayden Phillips.

“It is worth noting that we do not condone academic cheating of any kind and our website makes it very clear how to use our service correctly.”