The University of Wollongong has stripped one student of their degree and failed five others after they were caught buying essays online in a statewide plagiarism scandal.

Following an investigation by The Sydney Morning Herald, UOW traced 26 requests to the online essay-writing company MyMaster to eight of its students.

The MyMaster essay-cheating racket has seen another student lose their degree.

The MyMaster website, written in Chinese, charged students up to $1000 to write university assignments, which were then passed off as the student's own work.

According to a statement from UOW, the university investigated eight students, based on information it received from Fairfax journalists who broke the story on the plagiarism ring.