How much does it cost to buy a full PhD thesis from an academic ghost writer or an essay mill?
This infographic illustrates how much it would cost to buy a PhD of around 75,000 words.
The PhD pricing is based on the PhD providers I discussed in this post. There, you can find out more about the problem of original PhD theses available for sale on the Internet.
It is harder to fake your way to a PhD qualification than just a bachelor’s degree. You also have to plan to successfully complete a viva, or find some way of cheating the system to get away without this. Although some companies do offer training for this, it’s likely to involve an additional expense.
Some countries make the viva process even tougher by requiring the PhD to defended in public, in front of an open audience. This puts much of the burden of ensuring that the candidate is prepared back on the supervisor, as it would reflect badly on the supervisor if they sent an ill-prepared candidate out in this public setting. Perhaps the public defence approach is one that needs to be more widely considered in light of the PhD mills?
A new policy was brought in at our university a few years ago, mandating that all doctoral defences (that’s what we call them instead of a viva) be made public. That includes PhDs, EdDs and any other kind of doctorate. Most of the ones I’ve participated in since that time have had at least a few people in the gallery. I agree that it adds credibility to the process.