Deakin University has suspended an overseas student for cheating as it warns that students are increasingly using shonky online services to buy essays and other course work.

To protect the privacy of the students involved Deakin University is not giving many details of the most recent incident.

But ABC Radio's The World Today understands that in a class of about 100 students in the Business and Law Faculty, the work of about 30 students raised concerns.

Further investigations left about a third of those students under suspicion of cheating and ultimately one of them was suspended.

But it is warning them academic standards are more important than revenue and they are likely to suffer shame and financial loss if they are kicked out of their course.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Listen Duration: 4 minutes 36 seconds 4 m 36 s VC speaks out over cheating scandal ( Samantha Donovan ) Download 2.1 MB

Professor John Catford is a deputy vice chancellor at Deakin University and is responsible for the university's academic programs.

"There has been a growth in contract cheating where you actually buy online someone to write an assignment for you," he said.

"This is particularly problematic in the UK at the moment and in many other countries and it is now becoming apparent here in Australia too."

Professor Catford says it appears most of the websites offering essays and other course material online are based overseas.

"Salaries are low. There may well be graduates that are prepared to do this work. One of the issues in fact is that the cost actually prohibits quality," he said.

He says assignments sell online for about $100 or $200, but most of the dodgy works would not pass when submitted.

"I think what universities are doing now is being much more sophisticated in the assessment task, so it would be very difficult for someone overseas to answer a particular question if they don't for instance have local information data, particularly if it requires that sort of context to actually write the assignment in," he said.

Severe penalties

Professor Catford says the penalties for cheating are severe and international students could be kicked out of the country.

"Particularly for contract cheating where this is by design to be deceitful, then it's very likely not only will they fail but they will actually be excluded from the university and for an international student, that means they then lose their visa, they're not allowed to reapply for another three years or so through the Department of Immigration," he said.

"They may well have spent quite a lot of money on their course and they've got to manage the shame when they return home.

"So it's a very significant issue if a student is caught cheating, deliberately cheating and the penalties could affect them for the rest of their lives frankly."

The number of international students coming to Australia has dropped significantly in the last couple of years because of safety concerns and tighter visa conditions.

But Professor Catford says academic standards are a higher priority than revenue at his institution.

"What we need to make sure is that we select students that we feel have got a good chance of succeeding," he said.

"My personal feeling is that we shouldn't compromise on this. Academic standards is not something that we can compromise on.

"If the consequence is that international students will go to another country where standards are loose and lax, well so be it. We can't compromise the brand and the product here in Australia."

The president of the Council of International Students of Australia, Aleem Nizari, says more needs to be done to help students from overseas.

"There is a bigger problem here than just accessing those online sites. I think the students are being exploited here with different traps in terms of initial offers," he said.

"Or just assisting students in improving writing skills, in helping with plagiarism and how to avoid plagiarism and assistance with accurate referencing skills.

"But the issue is I think, why are the students going to these services in the first place? Are there not enough learning skills to help within these institutions and why are they feeling so uncomfortable about submitting their own work?"