The last quarter of the year usually has people in a frenzy as they anticipate a gift-giving season ahead. But for people like T in Vietnam, this is the time to make — not spend — a lot of money.
“October and November are high seasons,” says T, alluding to mid-term exam periods in English-speaking countries, where most of her clients are studying.
T is a ghostwriter or someone who is hired as a “contract cheater” for Vietnamese students enrolled in English-speaking programs in Vietnam and overseas. While the Vietnamese labor market has been hit hard by the pandemic with almost 33 million jobs affected, these contract cheaters have benefited from the spike in virtual learning and home assignments.
The Asia Democracy Chronicles (ADC) interviewed three ghostwriters and an agent to shed light on the highly profitable underground and unpunished industry of contract cheating in Vietnam. They were candid in their responses, but the interviewees all asked to be identified only by their first-name initials, citing privacy concerns.
The industry itself is an open secret. With the keyword “ghostwriting,” or viết thuê in Vietnamese, a Google search yields more than 65 million results, mostly websites of companies and groups offering contract cheating services. An article on LinkedIn published on 23 July 2019 also lists seven top ghostwriting agencies in Vietnam that provide services in both English and Vietnamese, including their physical and digital addresses, as well as contact numbers. One agency even had an office address in Singapore. More often than not, standard fees — which range from US$60 to US$120 per 1,000 words — are stated on their websites.
The agencies offer wide-ranging services on demand all year round, including ghostwriting, college application-making, and exam-sitting in English at all levels — including doctorate — and guarantee confidentiality for clients. They even sell completed essays or papers for those willing to pay. Plus, some agents accept orders to ghostwrite articles to be published in international peer-reviewed journals.
Ghostwriting for students is an open secret in Vietnam. Popularly known as “contract cheaters,” ghostwriters are in demand, especially among Vietnamese students enrolled abroad, and they can earn hundreds of dollars per project.
Online orders
T, a Ph.D. and Western-trained researcher from Hanoi, works for three of the companies mentioned in the LinkedIn article. But she says that she has been in contact with them only online, via email or SMS apps, particularly Zalo, a Vietnamese version of WhatsApp.
T was first introduced to the industry by a seasoned ghostwriter. Then she contacted the agents that she found on the internet and submitted her online application package, which consisted of her transcripts, English certificate, and some writing samples that she produced while at university. She was accepted and began receiving orders shortly.
T has since developed the habit of checking her email every half-hour. A recent check yielded her three orders due in a week’s time for an online Vietnamese agent: one written assignment of 1,500 words for a student at an Australian university with a campus in Hanoi; one PowerPoint presentation plus a verbatim script for a student based in Canada; and responses to a set of questions for a Chinese student at a British University. The assignments, all in English, were on three different topics: nursing, cross-cultural management, and macroeconomics.
For these three assignments, T anticipates a fee of about VND 2,650,000 or about US$116, which would be paid by the fifth day of the following month, a rule set by her agent.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, T has been working on contract for four online ghostwriting agents based in Hanoi. With just a laptop and internet connection, she has been making almost US$1,400 a month in the capital city, where the monthly wage of a Ph.D. level researcher like her is around US$270-300.
“I must be super quick, otherwise I will lose those orders to other writers,” says T, having just confirmed an order from another agent — an assignment on architectural history, which she has never studied but is sure she can tackle effortlessly.
From local to overseas contract cheating
Academic plagiarism in general and contract-cheating, in particular, have long been seen as chronic diseases in Vietnam. Vietnamese media outlets have covered stories of ghostwriting companies, led and staffed not only by students but also by university lecturers and professors.
Before joining the industry, those interviewed said that it had been well-known to them. Says T, a top graduate of her alma mater: “It is hard not to have heard of them. When I was at college, my classmates hired someone to write graduation papers for them, so I know that this industry has always existed.”
The number of students that Vietnam has sent abroad rose by almost 70 percent in the last decade. But not all students are willing to put in the time and effort needed to get that much-prized degree from an international school. (Photo shown is for illustration purposes only.)
Indeed, in major cities, photocopy shops near big universities covertly or overtly sell finished essays or theses at low prices or act as intermediaries between ghostwriters and student clients.
But the industry has now expanded its clientele overseas. According to everyone interviewed by ADC, their clients are mostly Vietnamese students at Australian universities and vocational colleges, followed by international universities based in Vietnam.
A fast-growing country that traditionally puts a premium on education, Vietnam is now among the top countries sending students abroad. Over the past decade, the number of Vietnamese students studying overseas has risen by almost 70 percent. Japan is the most popular destination for Vietnamese students. This is followed by the United States, then Australia, and Canada. In 2020, Vietnam ranked fourth among the countries with the most number of students enrolled in Australia.
As high as 90 percent of Vietnamese outbound students are self-funded, with the most popular majors being business, economics, and finance. Both parents and students often express distrust in the domestic education system, which fails to prepare students for the increasingly uncertain and cut-throat job market. Foreign credentials, meanwhile, give Vietnamese job seekers an edge in the domestic market.
Having international qualifications, particularly Western degrees, exemplifies not only a long-term investment for future success. It is also a status symbol for the burgeoning middle class in the Communist-ruled country with a struggling education system at all levels.
A huge number of Vietnamese students abroad, however, have resorted to online Vietnamese ghostwriting agencies. The students are unwilling or unable to complete assignments themselves, mostly due to a lack of English proficiency and inability to adapt to learning environments that require intensive self-study.
Bad students, good money
“Thanks to those students who were either too bad at English or too busy to study, I have a well-paid sideline job,” says H. She recalls that the highest amount that she ever earned so far from doing assignments or sitting exams on behalf of other students has been about US$1,300.
H joined the industry while studying full-time at Vietnam’s top-ranked Foreign Trade University. She says that her senior schoolmates and classmates who excelled at both English and economics were often hired to do assignments for struggling students enrolling in English-taught programs at her university. Some of these writers later became agents.
While orders are forwarded anonymously to the ghostwriters, they can often still see the letterheads of the universities on the assignments. According to ADC’s interviewees, many clients even provide them with their student accounts to access library and learning resources.
T says that the clients are aware the setup is wrong in many ways. Some ask their ghostwriters to be mindful of the similarity index reported by the text-matching software Turnitin as a way to counter plagiarism, or not to write in advanced language to avoid being detected by their teachers. Some even book one ghostwriter for the whole semester to ensure a consistent writing style.
But while the work is lucrative, ghostwriters say that aside from money, they also gain knowledge in doing the assigned papers, which allows them to learn about diverse subjects and new skills.
For instance, N, an employee in the private sector, says that writing numerous exercises on contract has helped her improve her English. She also says, “I learned in-depth about business topics that I did not have the chance to learn at school.”
‘F’ equals refund
For all its benefits, such as decent pay and flexible hours, the job does have its drawbacks.
Once a client gets an ‘F’ for the contracted paper, for example, a full refund is expected upon the production of evidence on reasons for failure. The ghostwriters have to return the full amount paid to them.
H says that there was one assignment that was completely dependent on internet sources since the client had no idea of what the professor was teaching. The client asked for endless edits, but the work still failed due to the inability to meet the requirements.
“All your efforts go down the drain once your assignment does not get a pass,” says H, who had to refund the client’s money.
“Sometimes, I feel humiliated,” admits T. “I studied to serve the right people, but now I have to cater to the ill-educated folks who used money to pay for grey matter. But I need a stable income anyway to survive.”
“It is fraudulent, so it is impossible to expect others to be nice or fair to you,” N comments. “You can wish for less annoying clients, who are completely in the dark about the subjects and are dependent on you, not those who know just a little and demand like crazy.”
At any rate, clients run all the risks. If they fail, it is they who will have to retake the exam or even redo the whole course at great expense.
No punitive measures against ghostwriters have been effectively put in place.
ADC tried to contact some universities overseas with Vietnamese students, but only Monash University in Australia replied. According to its spokesperson, “breaches of the University’s Student Academic Integrity Policy may lead to a loss of marks, a complete re-submission of the piece of work required for assessment, or, in serious cases, a fail grade for the unit or suspension or exclusion from the University.”
The spokesperson also said that sophisticated anti-cheating infrastructures are in place in Monash, adding in an email: “All students must also complete a compulsory Academic Integrity module when they commence their studies at Monash to ensure they develop a robust understanding of University expectations and sound academic practice.”
The Vietnamese ghostwriters remain upbeat about the industry’s prospects, however. Quips H, who says she does not find the work morally problematic: “Once there is demand, there will be supply.” ●
Taman Verawati is a freelance writer based in Vietnam.
