I think whether or not they are being immoral depends on what the cheater's major is, but for the most part I don’t think it’s immoral. There are two things here that can be considered 'immoral' (forgetting about the whole debate on whether or not morality exists for a moment): the act of cheating, and the act of aiding the cheater. I'll take them one by one.
In some circumstances it is easy to argue that cheating is wrong. If you cheated at a game in which your actions can directly affect the other player's performance - e.g. chess or pool - then not only are you going to receive undeserved praise for your ability, you are also taking away another person’s rightful claim to praise.
But in the situation of cheating in a test, nobody but the cheater is affected. It’s a similar argument to the old “do what you want as long as you don’t hurt anyone else”. As much as some may argue that it’s not fair on people who have rightfully passed the test, cheating doesn’t affect other test takers at all. It’s not like they won’t receive the qualification if the cheater does.
Nor is the qualification devalued if some of the people that hold the qualification are cheaters. When the cheater enters the world of work he is subject to a system that will naturally weed out the unqualified. If say the cheater is employed to fix computers at an office but doesn’t know how to fix them he’ll soon be sacked.
Depending on the subject though academic fraud can be more or less immoral. If a medical student cheated in the exam and became a surgeon, then a blunder caused by his lack of ability could be fatal, and sacking the cheater would never be enough to compensate for the tragedy that his incompetence caused.
As for the friend who is being paid to write the cheater’s essay, he’s only as immoral as the cheater. So if the cheater majored in say philosophy then the friend is just making a quick buck. He isn't hurting anybody. But if the cheater is going to become a surgeon then the friend is immoral for not having thought through the possible consequences of his actions.
Edited by Zawi, : No reason given.
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