When Getting a Degree Becomes a Shortcut (Part 2)

The Cost of Shortcuts

Introduction

In the first part of this reflection, I wrote about the weight of shortcuts in the classroom and the hollowing out of learning that follows. Yet the issue reaches further than individual assignments. It is a global pattern, one that undermines not only trust in education but the very process of transformation itself.

The Business of Shortcuts: A Global Pattern

Shortcuts are everywhere. From the UK to Australia, across classrooms and cultures, the same pattern repeats. Third-party writers profit from desperation, websites take the place of academic sources, and assignments are recycled year after year. The outsourcing of learning has grown into a worldwide trade, stripping higher education of its purpose until it becomes a simple transaction: pay, submit, pass, and leave, with no true transformation in between.

When Learning Theories Meet Reality

This makes me wonder: as educators, are the very theories we stand on, like the constructivist pedagogy, student-centred learning, and the call for inclusivity and flexibility, beginning to fail us? We are asked to practise them faithfully, to create classrooms rich with support and alignment, to trust in their promise of transformation; and we do. We open doors, we build scaffolds, we meet students with patience and care. Yet when they step away from the path, when shortcuts are chosen over struggle, those same principles of pedagogy hang suspended in the air, unable to do their work. The beauty of the theory remains, but its power is lost when there is no willingness to meet us halfway.

What We Lose

The greatest loss is not in the false references or the AI-generated patterns that we can now detect with ease. The true loss lies in the opportunity wasted, the refusal to walk the road students once set out to travel. It is the loss of a journey that might have shaped them, stretched them, helped them evolve, yet was abandoned in choice and neglected in spirit before it even began.

The Broken Bridge

Education has always been a meeting in the middle: teacher and student, system and learner, society and individual. It is a bridge built from both sides. When shortcuts are chosen, whether through third parties, through AI, or through false assurances whispered in corridors, the bridge is left unfinished. What remains is a void, and in that void, the promise of learning is lost.

The Dilemma We Face

At times I ask myself what the point of all this effort truly is. We design, we scaffold, we explain, and we create space for growth, yet some students still will not meet us halfway. Should we simply pass them along and allow the world of work to uncover the gaps they tried to conceal? The workplace, after all, is ruthless in exposing what is not there. Yet to let them move forward without question would be to betray the very purpose of education. Our task is not to hand over certificates without merit, nor to shield students from reality, but to guide them toward recognising that shortcuts cannot sustain the future they hope to build.

The Hope That Remains

Still, beneath the disappointment, hope endures. Hope that students will learn to trust the process, even when it feels slow and demanding. Hope that they will choose to embrace the struggle rather than avoid it, for it is within the struggle that resilience is formed. Hope that they will come to recognise what we already know, that education is not about passing an assignment but about shaping a mind.

The Final Truth

Shortcuts offer little gain.

The process is where growth takes root.

Perhaps you have witnessed this in your own learning or teaching. Please share your thoughts, your stories matter in keeping this conversation alive.