As UK students grapple with increased living costs, tens of thousands of those at university are turning to illegal piracy sites to download sections of academic texts, costing the publishing industry billions, reports by academic publisher Perlego found.
In September alone, when most university students are starting the academic year, 300,000 searches were made on piracy platforms enabling text downloads, the research found.
As rents and utility bills rise, the spike in searches coincides with a study which found that over 90% of higher education students are facing increased living expenses compared to the previous year, as per the Office for National Statistics.
Perlego, which operates an online library of academic, professional, and non-fiction eBooks, noted a significant surge in illegal downloads in January, with over 530,000 piracy searches in the UK during that month alone.
In 2023 so far, over three million illegal searches have occurred across various platforms.
Gauthier Van Malderen, the founder and boss of Perlego, said: “Piracy is becoming a huge problem for the textbook publishing industry globally and I do not think students realise the danger they are exposing themselves to in terms of their data being hacked when they access these illegal sites.
“The cost of living is hitting universities and students while publishers are being hit by the rise in illegal downloads of text.”