An education is viewed as an important thing. Former British PM, Tony Blair once ran on a platform where his party’s top three priorities were “Education, Education, Education.” The Shadow Scholars is a documentary that looks at the true cost of education and opportunity.
First-time director Eloïse King shines a spotlight on the contract cheating world in a film that counts Steve McQueen as an Executive Producer. King travels to Kenya, a country where sweatshops of intellectuals are offering university essays and theses to students for a fee. It is shocking to learn that an estimated 37 million students worldwide studying at all kinds of institutions (including Ivy League colleges) are caught up in this shady business.
The main research for this documentary was by Professor Patricia Kingori. She was born in Kenya and lived in St Kitts, before emigrating to the UK. Kingori is an inspirational woman. She is a sociologist and she was the first black woman to earn a full professorship at Oxford University.
Kingori is an authority on this subject, not just through her research but also through her own personal circumstances; she herself had her thesis plagiarised. She serves as both an interviewer and a subject here. It can get a bit confusing at times, but at its best she helps frame the historical context (including how colonialism in Kenya helped drive this industry).
Both King and Kingori have done a lot of research here. King provides a lot of different narrative threads to the story, including interviewing academics as well as anonymous interviews with the Kenyan ghost writers and some buyers from Western countries. It is a lot of information to take in and some scenes seem to fit in with this film more than others.
There are scenes about the rise of AI and how this will impact on the Kenyans’ livelihoods. The country’s national average wage is approximately $5,000 p.a. Its population are vastly overqualified (there are a million students graduating each year) yet many are constantly unemployed. It is in this world that they have found an “African solution” to this Western issue. The writer’s themselves describe their work as “Academic support and guidance.” One American academic says that they do this is in order to justify or distance themselves from the real work of cheating.
There are some scenes dedicated to the Varsity Blues Scandal. This was where several high-profile parents were found to be bribing colleague administrators to buy their children a place in college. While it makes an interesting parallel to the ethical questions presented here, it feels like it is getting a bit off-track from the main narrative. At times this documentary tries to tackle too much ground. While this can mean it provides a balanced set of voices, it does also come at the expense of a tighter, more focused narrative.
The Shadow Scholars is an important film about a contentious subject. It spotlights a broken education system where brilliant black minds aren’t given the same opportunities as the people they are helping. It will provoke much thought and discussion about the ethics of education. It’s a world where all of the participants are operating in a melting pot of different pressures and as the research shows, there are no clear answers.
THREE STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
The Shadow Scholars screened as part of this year’s Sydney Film Festival, which ran between June 4th and 15th, 2025. For more information head to the official SFF page.
