With dozens of online term paper mills appearing on the Internet, professors and institutions are imposing new strategies to deter students from using them

Dr. Harryette Mullen worries that the Internet is making it too easy for students to cheat themselves out of an education. Mullen, an associate professor of English at the University of California-Los Angeles, says the growing presence of "term paper mill" Web sites on the Internet is a cause for great concern.

"I look for new information on the Internet, and then you stumble across these sites," Mullen says. "I'm concerned that students are robbing themselves because they aren't learning critical skills."

For years, desperate students have turned to illicit means to procure term papers, subsequently submitting them as their own work. Colleges and universities have long enforced bans on this form of cheating.

The Internet -- with its capacity to allow the electronic downloading of documents to desktop computers -- has ushered in a whole new and menacing era in the realm of cheating.

There are dozens of companies with Web sites that advertise services for providing customers with "models" of research papers. The company Web sites have names -- such as "Evil House of Cheat," "Term Papers 911," and "Genius Papers" -- that feature downloadable papers on thousands of topics that can be purchased by anyone with a credit card. Some of the sites charge no fee at all for research papers.

"This is a very important issue because it speaks to the academic integrity of an institution," says Sheila Trice Bell, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based National Association of College and University Attorneys.

"[The issue] is fundamental to the relationship between student and teacher. There's a core of trust that needs to exist there for the integrity of the educational process. That trust is broken when a student turns in work that is not his or her own."

The growth of term paper mill Web sites has alarmed administrators and faculty, who are looking to develop ways to counteract their patronage by students. It is not known how extensive the use of term paper mills are, but a cursory search of the Internet reveals several dozen uncovered by a single web browser. Other web browsers turn up dozens of additional term paper mill Web sites.