Eloise King

Professor Kingori explores Kenya&apos;s essay mills supplying work for students globally. Thousands of educated but underemployed Kenyans earn from this billion-dollar industry undermining education&apos;s integrity.

The Shadow Scholars

A personal view of an intriguing topic

&apos;Shadow Scholars&apos; is a name that has been applied to residents of poorer countries who for a fee supply essays to students in wealthier ones. Their existence raises a number of interesting questions. For example, are the customers wealthy slackers, or do they feel the need to buy in their essays because they themselves are exhausted from doing part time work alongside their studies? Are the essay writers working to literally put food in their bellies, or is this just a lucrative side hustle? What will AI do to the business? How can universities maintain their standards? Does &quot;academic integrity&quot; mean anything other than playing by a set of rules you have had no say in making? This film explores the issue following Patricia Kingori, a Kenyan-born academic who has written about the issue (many of the writers are themselves Kenyan). Unfortunately, to me she seems to miss the most interesting points. We don&apos;t learn in any details, for example, about the economic situation of either customers or writers. Her main concerns are that Kenyans are forced into this work because of the lack of other opportunity, and denied the chance to get credit for their own achievements. Which is true but also trite. Global imbalances in wealth and opportunity lead to the poor (both nationally and internationally) doing all sorts of work that they wouldn&apos;t have to do if they were more priveleged: prostitution, cleaning, low-level security, mining, etc. But their employment in such work is surely the consequence of global inequality not its cause. If professional essay writing is banned, the outcome will not be that Harvard kicks out its wealthy fee paying students and replaces them with the poor Kenyans who currently write their essays. I&apos;m interested in how to make the world a fairer place, and I&apos;m also interested in the socio-economics of particular slices of the world. But ultimately this documentary fails to provide much insight on either count.

Official Trailer

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'Shadow Scholars' is a name that has been applied to residents of poorer countries who for a fee supply essays to students in wealthier ones. Their existence raises a number of interesting questions. For example, are the customers wealthy slackers, or do they feel the need to buy in their essays because they themselves are exhausted from doing part time work alongside their studies? Are the essay writers working to literally put food in their bellies, or is this just a lucrative side hustle? What will AI do to the business? How can universities maintain their standards? Does "academic integrity" mean anything other than playing by a set of rules you have had no say in making? This film explores the issue following Patricia Kingori, a Kenyan-born academic who has written about the issue (many of the writers are themselves Kenyan). Unfortunately, to me she seems to miss the most interesting points. We don't learn in any details, for example, about the economic situation of either customers or writers. Her main concerns are that Kenyans are forced into this work because of the lack of other opportunity, and denied the chance to get credit for their own achievements. Which is true but also trite. Global imbalances in wealth and opportunity lead to the poor (both nationally and internationally) doing all sorts of work that they wouldn't have to do if they were more priveleged: prostitution, cleaning, low-level security, mining, etc. But their employment in such work is surely the consequence of global inequality not its cause. If professional essay writing is banned, the outcome will not be that Harvard kicks out its wealthy fee paying students and replaces them with the poor Kenyans who currently write their essays. I'm interested in how to make the world a fairer place, and I'm also interested in the socio-economics of particular slices of the world. But ultimately this documentary fails to provide much insight on either count.

Professor Kingori explores Kenya's essay mills supplying work for students globally. Thousands of educated but underemployed Kenyans earn from this billion-dollar industry undermining education's integrity.

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The Shadow Scholars

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