Hundreds of university students in Kent are caught cheating in their coursework and exams every year.

Figures obtained by KentOnline show there were 712 offences in 2010/11 – a rise of around 15% in two years.

Many students were found out after downloading essays from websites, some of which charge less than £5 a month for unlimited access.

Others were caught paying ghost writers, who charge as much as £35 per page for a degree-level assignment - and even promise first-class grades.

In total, 18 students were caught cheating in their exams last year.

Offences included sneaking iPods, mobile phones and notes into the exam hall and leaving the room without permission.

At the University of Kent, which has campuses in Canterbury, Medway and Tonbridge, 558 students were pulled up for coursework offences during the last academic year.

That compares to 94 at Canterbury Christ Church University, which has students in Canterbury, Broadstairs, Folkestone and Medway, and 15 at the University of Greenwich's Medway campus.

There were 27 offences at the University for the Creative Arts' Canterbury, Maidstone and Rochester campuses and none at Canterbury College.

Most offences were not serious enough to warrant students being expelled from their course, although 10 have been dismissed in the past three years, including two for 'gross academic misconduct' and one for repeated plagiarism.

A University of Greenwich spokesman said: "These figures show we take a robust approach to any academic offences, including plagiarism, not correctly acknowledging sources and other offences in examinations.

"Staff are highly vigilant in relation to cheating and students have a thorough briefing when they join Greenwich. The university also uses a variety of sophisticated computer software that can, for example, detect matches between students' work and articles on the internet."

A University for the Creative Arts spokesman said: "Academic misconduct is an issue we take very seriously and we have robust processes in place to handle this."

The University of Kent declined to comment and no response was received from Canterbury Christ Church University.