GETTY Nearly 50,000 university students have been caught cheating in the last three years

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Nearly 50,000 university students have been caught in the last three years, according to new figures – but just one per cent were dismissed. Foreign non-EU students made up more than a third of all cases but accounted for just 12 per cent of the student population, requests from 70 universities showed.

GETTY Students from outside the EU made up more than a third of all cases

At Queen Mary University of London, three in four postgraduates found plagiarising were from abroad, including a third from China. The statistics, from 129 UK universities, revealed 362 students were expelled because of cheating.

GETTY Just one per cent of students were dismissed for cheating, according to the statistics

Five students were caught arranging for someone else to sit their exams – and 11 institutions each caught 1,000 or more students cheating over the three-year period, with Kent University finding the most guilty at 1,947. One university professor said he believed the use of professional essay writers, widely available on the internet, was on the rise.

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Professor Geoffrey Alderman of the University of Buckingham said: "What I'd call type-1 plagiarism, copying and pasting, is on the wane because it's so easy to detect. "But my impression is that type-2 cheating, using a bespoke essay-writing service, is increasing." Such services can charge hundreds of pounds for essays, dissertations and model exam answers written by professional lecturers up to doctorate level.

IG The University of Kent caught the highest number of cheats

The top five universities which caught the highest number of cheats... • Kent - 1,947 • Westminster - 1,933 • East London - 1,828 • Sheffield Hallam - 1,740 • Oxford Brookes - 1,711