VietNamNet Bridge – To earn money, some university students have been taking classes and roll calls posing and have to bear the consequences.

Advertisement on web.

People who seek out this kind of service are varied and usually are employed by post-graduate students who feel they are too busy with work or family matters to attend. Vu Thu Nga, lecturer of University of Transportation confirmed this phenomenon and went on to say classes for post-graduate and second degrees are very crowded.

Adverts such as this one: "We will send someone to attend all your classes on time. Price can be negotiated. Please call us at..." can be found easily on the web and in public places where students are to be found. Those willing to pay for such services openly display contact information. Those who take the jobs usually make around VND70,000-100,000 per class (USD3.4-4.8) in exchange for attendance and taking notes. Some ask for additional fees if they are required to take tests.

Tran Ngoc Ninh, a second year student in business management, has been in this business since he was a first year student. Ninh said he first started this business just to help out a friend in his apartment block. His friend was already working but was requested to have a second degree in law. He asked Ninh to take the roll calls when Ninh was free because he was too busy. However, seeing that Ninh had carefully taken notes, he hired Ninh at the fee of VND60,000 per class. After that, he introduced other friends that had the same problem.

"I don't have to do much. Just take the roll calls and sleep and receive the money. However, I have to ask other friends to share the workload because the customers' schedule and my schedule overlapped at times." Ninh said.

Nguyen Hong Hanh, who works in the media sector, said, "I'm busy with work during the daytime and then my kids at night, yet I still need time to study for a second degree, so I need some help. I pay VND80,000 per class and additional fees for phone calls and lunches. I only come to class to take tests."

Lured by the easy money, some students provide such services to several customers at the same time, even deciding to skip some of their own classes.

Another student, Tran Thu Ha said that she has seen her own lecturer during her customer's class. Ha was reprimanded but her customer was only temporarily banned from taking the final exam.

Those who try to hire others to take their exams often charge fees of VND1-1.5 million per subject. However, not many students are willing to accept these jobs because of the higher risks involved and the lack of certainty of whether they would pass the exams.

DTriNews/ANTD