Parents or friends who proofread and make minor changes to students’ assignments could find themselves caught up by a new law cracking down on academic cheating, universities have warned.

The federal government has drafted legislation making it an offence to provide or advertise so-called “contract cheating” services, including websites offering to complete assignments or sit exams in exchange for a fee.

People found guilty under the proposed law could face up to two years in prison or a fine of up to $210,000.

Universities Australia chief executive Catriona Jackson said while the bill was needed to send a “powerful signal” to contract cheating providers, some of its wording was too broad.

“There’s a phrase [in the bill] describing prohibiting the provision of “any part of a piece of work or assignment” that a student’s required to complete,” Ms Jackson said.

“We’re concerned that that might mean that if you were a mum or a dad at home proofreading your kid’s essay, you say ‘those three sentences don’t work very well, how about you use this different sentence or this different construction or these different words?’, that that kind of assistance might be captured.

“I don’t think anyone wants that to be the case so we’d just like some of the language to have a little more attention before … they get to the very final version of the draft.”

Associate Professor Phillip Dawson from Deakin University’s Centre For Research In Assessment And Digital Learning agreed the phrasing was too vague.

“If I say ‘hey it would be great if you reworded that sentence to be this other way’, is that providing cheating services?” he said.

“If a student passes a note to another student in an exam or an older sibling offers to do the stats for their younger sibling’s assignment, that shouldn’t be a crime. That should be something that universities’ existing academic integrity procedures should deal with.”

In a statement, Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan said contract cheating undermined the integrity of Australia’s higher education system and needed to be stamped out.

“A degree from an Australian university is valuable and the Morrison Government is protecting the investment we’re making in higher education and protecting the value of our $35 billion international student sector by cracking down on cheats,” he said.

“The bill will give TEQSA (the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency) the power to seek Federal Court injunctions to require internet service providers to block access to domestic and international websites promoting cheating services.”

Mr Tehan said the legislation explicitly exempted any academic support authorised by universities, for example, scribing assistance for a student with a disability.

“I provided the draft legislation in April for consultation and will take the feedback into account when finalising the bill,” he said.

“I expect to introduce it to Parliament this year.”

Education Minister Dan Tehan says he expects the legislation will reach Parliament this year.

Contract cheating becoming worse, students say National Union of Students president Desiree Cai said contract cheating rates were difficult to measure but were believed to be becoming more widespread.

“The issue of contract cheating probably has been around for years and years, but because of the use of the internet there’s probably more visibility of the services that exist,” she said.

“And also for students looking to use them, it’s an easier way to access it.”

Ms Cai said she supported the aims of the government’s legislation, which would target providers rather than students, but wanted universities to provide more support to prevent people from cheating in the first place.

“I think for a lot of people, cheating is a sort of last measure when they really don’t know where else to turn to get support,” she said.

“University academic support and language support, particularly for more vulnerable students, like international students, all of that can be improved.”

Ms Jackson said it was already a major focus for universities which used a combination of support and penalties to deter and punish cheaters.

“So if you are caught cheating, there will be a range of penalties applied — either you’ll be failed, or you can be dismissed from university,” she said.

“So there are supports in place but there are also very tough regimes of punishment if the cheating is serious and repeated.”

-ABC