In her “microscope”. Electronic Crime Prosecution Directorate there are cases of taking on payment and entirely writing assignments on behalf of third parties.

The Minister of Citizen Protection Takis Theodorikakos, with his document forwarded to the Parliament, as part of the parliamentary audit, he notes that the Electronic Crime Prosecution assists the competent authorities in the investigation of such cases. It underlines that the development of software that can be used in the production of speech and in particular the so-called chat bots (such as ChatGPT), based on artificial intelligence, are particularly popular in the current period, creates challenges at a global level, as the implications of their use extend to various areas such as the copyright of the produced text, the possible effects on the educational process.

In this light, the Greek Police, notes the Minister of Citizen Protection, can contribute to every effort to combat any emergent phenomena of illegal activity, through DI.D.H.E., within the framework of its operation and responsibilities .

The written response of the Minister of Citizen Protection was forwarded to the Parliament following a complaint by the Federation of Private Educational Officers of Greece (OIELE) that “the shameful phenomenon of dozens of companies that make “ready-made” master’s and doctoral theses has become uncontrollable”.

The complaints of OIELE were filed, in the form of a petition, by the SYRIZA MPs Nikos Fili and Meropi Tsoufi. The Federation of Private Educators of Greece has pointed out that the scoring of academic qualifications in the ASEP tables has magnified in the country the shameful phenomenon of writing dissertations, both for master’s degrees and for doctorates, by companies that market themselves as supposedly “consulting”, but in fact write , from start to finish, the jobs of “wicked” customers.

In addition, OIELE has denounced that the proliferation of companies specializing in the writing of dissertations, on demand, and the development of new software that can be used in the production of speech, such as ChatGPT, give rise to great challenges and will create new foci of iniquity, difficult to deal with, which require systematic work by the supervisory authorities.

In this context, OIELE has requested the cooperation of the Electronic Crime Prosecution, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Development with the aim of creating a special service that will deal with the mapping of the area and the initiation of dealing with the phenomenon.

As the Federation of Private Educators notes, “greater proof of the fact of the immense fraud, with the aim of finding a job in the public sector, is that even today, despite the fact that there is relevant legislation that requires the review of holders of illegal degrees, they ‘serve’ in the sensitive area of ​​Health, almost 2,000 people who received monkey degrees from 17 private high schools that were locked up by a brave minister, Marietta Giannakou, after complaints from OIELE”.

“Dozens of theses “production” companies advertise freely on the internet”, reports the Federation of Private Educators and notes: “This phenomenon is not only Greek, but in the country where indecency reigns, the sellers advertise the “goods” freely. There have always been people who wrote dissertations for a fee, but the creation of a “market” for the production of “ready-made” papers has grown strongly during the pandemic. Now, if you type the phrases “paid student assignments” or “dissertation companies” into Google, hundreds of results will come up with the “services” described bluntly and … politely: “We help to successfully support the thesis,” ” with consistency in deadlines”, “support until the end of the effort”. The official justification for the operation of the representatives of the side trade of the works is the so-called advisory support. Everyone knows, of course, that unemployed postgraduates are recruited and write from start to finish the theses of the … graduate degrees. The cost list, based on what we have been told by anonymous whistleblowers, can start at 100 euros for a small assignment and reach four figures for a demanding doctoral thesis.

The thesis industry phenomenon is growing overseas. Based on recent figures in the US the percentage of students caught “stealing” has increased eightfold in recent years. However, the Universities and the state with the help of specialized companies and modern software “detect” a large part of the “fast food” theses and send the “producers” and the copycats to Justice. In addition, and mainly due to the low teacher-student ratio, there are strict examination protocols that enable the lecturer to perceive if the student has written his thesis himself.

However, as OIELE points out, in Greece to date no one has seriously dealt with the issue and it is unknown if even one of those companies that freely advertise illegal activities has been audited or brought to justice. As they also note, there are university schools that have employed special software (such as the Turnitin program) to detect illegality, but these are few.