Practice of “Joki” Rampant, Like a Factory of Scientific Works
The practice of a joki in the academic world has become a lucrative business. The demand for joki services keep flowing. Service providers reap huge profits from the business.
By
INSAN ALFAJRI, DHANANG DAVID ARITONANG, IRENE SARWINDANINGRUM, ANDY RIZA HIDAYAT
·7 minutes read
JAKARTA, KOMPAS — The joki business in the academic world is run under the guise of tutoring to typing services. The investigation team of Kompas daily traced the whereabouts of providers of thesis writing services in three cities, namely Malang, Yogyakarta and Medan. The investigation on the practice of joki in writing scientific thesis was also carried out through social media and the internet.
Some providers of joki practices are legal entities, which enable them to freely carry out their business like a factory producing scientific works. The establishment of PT CLUE, for example, was legalized in the document of the Law and Human Rights Ministry (Kemenkumham) number AHU-076567.AH.01.01 Tahun 2022. CLUE is managed by a president director with the initials RF and a commissioner, RBS.
Based on company deed documents, CLUE runs a business on culture and education, management and banking education services, tutoring and counseling, as well as other educational activities. In practice, one of CLUE's businesses is to provide joki services.
“I haven't found any legal violations. However, the bad thing is that people don't respect joki. Actually, my lecturer friends and I are just fine. They said it was common practice even though they didn't agree with it," said RF (35), when Kompas met him at his office on Tuesday (17/1/2023) in Malang.
CLUE does not have a dedicated office. The address listed in the Kemenkumham document is RF's home address. He lives in a two-story house that serves as a residence. The scientific work service activities are carried out online.
Hundreds of clients
CLUE has five teams consisting of a content team and tutors totaling around 200 people. RF admits that on average, his employees have Masters and Doctoral degrees from well-known universities, including Gadjah Mada University and the Bandung Institute of Technology.
CLUE internal records show on average the company receives 120 clients per month. During the pandemic it even received up to 250 clients per month. The fees for the services start at Rp 400,000 (US$26) per chapter.
The Kompas team confirmed the company's business practices to one of the former writers with the initials RO, a graduate of a state university in West Sumatra. RO showed documents containing his name as well as a number of other authors. According to his confession, he received between Rp 150,000 and Rp 250,000 per chapter.
When working on scientific work, CLUE management created a Whatsapp chatting group containing RF, the clients and authors. “My client and I can only communicate through that group. I am prohibited from communicating directly with clients. If caught, I would be fired immediately," said RO.
RO admitted that his job was indeed as a joki and not just helping people make scientific work. "I was recruited as a thesis writing supervisor. But, the fact is, I'm the one doing it, not mentoring," he said.
RO recognition goes hand in hand with tracking on CLUE social media. By pretending to order the thesis writing service through CLUE's Instagram account, the manager immediately directs the Whatsapp number for information regarding the thesis work. From conversations on Whatsapp, it was understood that CLUE provides a service to write a thesis, starting from the title and making the proposals to working on revisions.
The fees offered are divided per chapter and differentiated between science and social papers. CLUE also provides data, reference journals and estimated questions from lecturers and data processing. Managers also provide thesis writing software services worth Rp 3.5 million to Rp 7 million, excluding the cost of writing the thesis.
On the service user side, CLUE is seen as helping clients in difficult conditions. Putra (32), a CLUE user, paid Rp 1.3 million to write his thesis in law. He felt helped because he was at the deadline for submitting his thesis. "At that time I just had a title, but I was still busy with other matters," he said.
A similar company, namely CV Sanggar Indonesia, labels itself as a technology research and development institution. This company has a business registration number of 02520102-03706 from the Law and Human Rights Ministry. The recognition of its employees is in line with the company's label. The head of Sanggar Indonesia, ATK, admitted that he provided data processing and tutoring services. "There are also lecturers who use our services. At least those working here are Masters graduates. So, we are indeed professionals from a scientific point of view,” explained ATK when Kompas met her at the Sanggar Indonesia office in Malang.
However, ATK's confession was different from when Kompas communicated via Whatsapp. This number is embedded on the Klikwisuda.com website which is affiliated to CV Sanggar Indonesia. On this site the company offers joki services in writing scientific papers. We pretended that we wanted to make a thesis and the admin of the Klikwisuda.com page immediately responded by offering a service package. For a thesis, the price for making a title proposal is Rp 3.5 million, while the price for writing the whole thesis is Rp 6.5 million.
New company
In Yogyakarta, one of the joki service providers was found as a typing service provider Jagoketik.com. The company has expanded its business from a typing service provider to scientific thesis writing services. Even though they are not yet a legal entity, they have 40 partners.
Unlike other joki providers, which operate clandestinely, Jagoketik.com is somewhat more daring to come to the surface. On the website, the name of the business owner and the writing team are clearly stated. Site visitors can directly contact the author via email and cellphone number.
“In the past, my motivation was only to help female friends who did not have the time to write. It turned out there was a big market in this business. There were those who asked for typing services worth from hundreds of thousands to Rp 37 million in one transaction," said the owner of Jagoketik.com, YDP (29), Tuesday (31/1)
Now Jagoketik.com has given birth to a new business unit, namely Dosenik.com which provides thesis writing mentoring services with professional lecturers or tutors. YDP admits that there is a gray area in its business, namely in the writing of scientific papers. In one month, according to YDP, there is an average transaction value of Rp 60 million from the services provided.
“I myself am surprised. The fact is, this effort is needed," he said.
Jagoketik.com managers provide testimonials to authors that are displayed on their website pages. An author named Alif Rozaq, for example, was given a 9 score for speed and communication by a client named Amel and 8.5 for work results on a scale of 1-10. "The communication was good, I felt comfortable, the work was also good, the results were good," wrote Amel.
Job vacancy
At the end of December 2022, there was information on job vacancies at a thesis writing service in Medan called Medan Tesis. A Kompas reporter disguised himself as a job applicant for the writer's position there on 15 January 2023. On Friday (20/1), he met the manager of Medan Tesis with the initials KRS at his office and house in Marelan district. He admitted that his business was run to meet the needs of clients who were previously served individually. With four employees, he can work up to 10 projects per month.
KRS refused to be called a joki because he selected the clients he handled. He only agrees to write a scientific thesis up to 80 percent of the total writing work. “We told the client, we only help around 80 percent, while the other 20 percent must come from the students. There must be a contribution from the owner of the work. We don't want to accept orders if the student hasn't started at all,” he said.
KRS' statement indicates that it violates the regulation of the Education, Culture, Research and Technology Ministry Number 39 of 2021 concerning Academic Integrity in producing scientific work. According to this rule, KRS should be listed as the author of the scientific paper because he contributed up to 80 percent. "The work is fully owned by the client. We are limited to writing,” he said. (FAI/DVD/IRE/NDY)
This article was translated by Hendarsyah Tarmizi.