This flight from Hong Kong to Toronto took a gruelling 14 hours. As usual, I watched a movie, slept a little, watched another movie, and slept a little more. … Flying long haul gives me an opportunity to watch movies that I don’t usually encounter. This time I found another interesting one, recommended by my wife.
The Shadow Scholars is a documentary about students, usually attending universities in wealthy Western countries, paying people in Kenya to do their academic work - writing essays, taking examinations, …
These students, many in famous universities, are “earning” valuable degrees passing other people’s work as their own.
These Kenyans are making a living, sometimes using the earnings to study at universities themselves. They are learning a lot from the process of researching and writing.
The shadow scholars can make more money by bypassing the middlemen, dealing with the clients directly. They can also make more by adopting Western-sounding pseudonyms.
Who are benefiting, perhaps even exploiting others in this business? Who are doing unsavoury, perhaps even unlawful deeds?
The investigation was conducted by Professor Patricia Kingori, a professor at Oxford University. She was originally from Kenya. She does research on misinformation and pseudoscience. Her life and work is a story in itself. It is quite a fascinating movie.
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