Mountain View, Calif. - Google will no longer accept ads from companies offering tailor-made essays for high school and university students as of next month, the BBC reports.

A spokesman for Universities UK estimated that 12,000 of the essays, which go for as much as $9,900 and are more difficult to detect by plagiarism software, are being passed off as students' own each year.

"Plagiarism devalues the efforts of students who work hard to achieve their degrees," Universities UK president Professor Drummond Bone told the BBC.

"It also damages the student who commits plagiarism, as they will not benefit from the research and learning experience." Google has written to essay writing companies to inform them of its new policy.

Matthew Wilson, managing director of Essaywriter.co.uk, told the BBC that 80% of his business had come through Google.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6680457.stm