"Her latest project, The Shadow Scholars, is a 138-minute documentary directed by Eloise King and executive-produced by 12 Years a Slave director Steve McQueen. It investigates a hidden multibillion-dollar industry: contract cheating. Kingori traces how students in the wealthy, industrialized countries of the global north outsource coursework to "shadow scholars" in Nairobi. An estimated 40,000 highly educated but underemployed young people ghostwrite everything from undergraduate essays to master's dissertations and PhD theses, often producing several essays every day, with tight turnarounds."
"This is not a new phenomenon: a 2018 paper estimated that at least one in seven graduates worldwide have used such services. The UK, Irish and Australian governments, plus some US and Indian states, have taken steps to outlaw advertising by commercial 'essay mills'. But despite such moves, demand continues to grow. Kingori's film explores the issue by going to the writers themselves."
A sociologist became one of the youngest full professors at the University of Oxford and focuses on ethics and power in health, medicine and science. A 138-minute documentary, directed by Eloise King and executive-produced by Steve McQueen, investigates a hidden multibillion-dollar industry: contract cheating. Students in wealthy industrialized countries outsource coursework to 'shadow scholars' in Nairobi, where an estimated 40,000 highly educated but underemployed young people ghostwrite essays, dissertations and PhD theses on tight turnarounds. Surveys indicate over 70% of Kenya's online freelance workforce engages in writing and translation, a euphemism for fake-essay work. Governments have acted to curb essay-mill advertising, yet demand keeps growing.
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