The issue with Chinese students around 2000-2003 was that they were paying companies in China to help them apply for university in the UK. They needed a document to show that they were fluent in English, but the companies would arrange somebody to sit it for them. Apparently many of the students were innocent insofar as they seemed genuinely unaware of the subterfuge being carried out on their behalf.
Quite how they expected to study without speaking English, I don’t know. But apparently it was the science and engineering students who managed to get the furthest on their courses before they were detected. People in the humanities got caught out early on in seminars. There were apparently even some translation/interpreting students who didn’t speak good English.
I have a professor friend who was involved in uncovering the scandal. She was summonsed to a very unfriendly meeting with the Chinese ambassador.
One of the FSDO questions for my 61.75 was “do you speak English”, which he said was obviously the case, but had to ask anyway. We actually had quite a laugh, and a friendly argument over ‘glasses’ vs ‘spectacles’ being correct English.
kwlf wrote:
arrange somebody to sit it for them
Someone in the training industry told me this was happening with (middle eastern?) ATPL candidates taking the theory exams at Gatwick, so they introduced an identity check.
I thought the UK issued a flying licence and a radio licence as two separate documents? If so, which one has the ELP?
The trick with plagiarism is to steal the ideas, not the actual words 
Someone I know writes essays for a living, up to PhD level. They are obviously pretty bright, but they say it’s actually very easy once you’ve done a few: a bit of research, list the references, then present the writing in a style and format the university expects. Just like journalism, apparently.
