Recent findings regarding the student poverty trap were exacerbated today with news from UKEssays.com that many middle class students are being bought custom essays by their parents. The UKEssays.com customer survey reports an increase of 50% of essays being purchased for a son or daughter, with a staggering 90% of those customers having a middle class background.

UKEssays.com even had to turn down one multiple order because the parent claimed she would rewrite all of the essays so that her son could simply hand them in as his own in January. With some newspapers claiming that social mobility hasn’t improved since the 1970’s, this seems sure to condemn the governments funding policies even further.

Students going to university have always been divided by class, with many middle class students having the luxury of not having to work part time, while many working class students have been forced to divide their time between work and university. With lower class students working in part time jobs for anything up to 30 hours, this would give middle class students an unfair advantage. So the news that more middle class students are buying their degrees will only serve to widen the rich/poor divide.

Some parents have even confessed on the phone that the custom essays are going to be gifts for Christmas, because they want to help out their children at what has become a time for learning rather than a time for caring.

With UKEssays.com average basket price reaching in excess of £1500, it’s becoming more evident that students from middle class families can buy their way into university, and then buy their way out too.

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