The Tertiary Education Quality Standards Agency (TEQSA) has commenced legal proceedings against Chegg Inc, accusing it of providing an academic cheating service. This is the first time that TEQSA has taken legal action for alleged contraventions of Australia’s academic cheating laws.
Subsection 114A(3) of the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act 2011 (TEQSA Act), introduced in 2020, prohibits providing, offering to provide, or arranging for a third party to provide, an academic cheating service to a higher education student.
Through its proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia, TEQSA is alleging that US-based Chegg contravened this provision of the TEQSA Act on five occasions in 2021 and 2022.
TEQSA first wrote to Australia’s higher education providers back in late April/Early May 2023, saying “TEQSA has received numerous concerns from higher education providers that the online platform Chegg.com facilitates contraventions of the provisions of the TEQSA Act which prohibit providing, offering to provide or arranging for a third person to provide academic cheating services”, according to a report in the AFR on 7 May 2023.
TEQSA says that it had engaged with Chegg to attempt to resolve concerns that had been raised.
TEQSA Acting Chief Commissioner, Ms Adrienne Nieuwenhuis, said “Where TEQSA finds academic cheating services being advertised or offered to students, we will take appropriate action to protect the integrity and reputation of Australia’s higher education sector”.
