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Could Nexus Notes be the next best thing to happen to university students?

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You’ve done all the hard work, your friends have always been bugging you for your high-quality notes, and you’ve got the results to show. What do you do with those notes that you’ve painstakingly written?

Or, imagine if you haven’t been working very hard, your lecturer sucks, and your friends don’t have any good notes either.

Sounds familiar? Say hi to Nexus Notes, a start-up that allows university students to trade their high quality lecture and exam notes online either for cash, or for a contribution towards a good cause.

A simple solution to a common problem

Created by former AFL player and Bond University entrepreneurship graduate Hugh Minson, 26, and Macquarie Bank employee and University of Adelaide commerce graduate, Richard Hordern-Gibbings, 25, Nexus Notes was founded in Adelaide in 2011 and is now used by students from over 16 of Australia’s leading universities and a handful of New Zealand universities

The notes, which can be previewed online, are sold for $35 per set with the student pocketing half the sale price. Of course, you can almost be sure of the quality, as Nexus Notes vets all notes before sale, approving only those for which students have received high distinctions and distinctions in their subjects.

Although the service is still growing, some cash-strapped students have been able to earn over $1500 by uploading their notes. For students who don’t happen to be in need of extra moolah (lucky you), Nexus Notes also allows uploaders to donate a percentage of their earnings from the online sale of their notes directly to AIME, with the website hoping to raise $10,000 for the Indigenous mentoring charity by the year’s end.

Nexus Notes CEO Hugh Minson said the idea was born while the team was studying at university, and felt frustrated by the lack of easily accessible, high quality study materials.

“Students learn in many ways. They can pay for private tutors, they can pay for textbooks written by leading academics, and now they can pay for notes written by leading students,” he said.

“We believe in the power of a well-written set of student notes. Students capable of summarising the important features of a course are well placed to educate incoming students. It’s an efficient way of learning and has benefits for both the seller and the buyer.”

Students at popular universities including the University of Adelaide, Bond University on the Gold Coast, Deakin University in Melbourne, the University of NSW, Macquarie University and the University of Sydney have submitted notes using the service, as have students from the Universities of Auckland and Otago in New Zealand.

Peer-to-Peer commerce in academia

While universities may not welcome the idea of an online marketplace for student notes, Minson believes that it is important to recognise the changing face of academia in the digital age.

“This is something that is starting to take off all over the world – including at top institutions like Oxford and Cambridge. All we are aiming to do is provide another resource to enrich students’ learning experience and provide high-achievers with an easy way of earning extra cash.”

Citing examples of hot peer-to-peer businesses such as Ebay, airBnB, and Uber, Minson commented that the trading of notes is a natural progression in this business model.

According to Minson, the service is legal and does not breach copyright or intellectual property laws, as long as the students submitting the notes for sale have written the notes themselves.

“It is not plagiarism, either, as universities do not mark notes. We don’t allow students to sell assignments,” he added.

Minson is planning to perfect the model in Australia and New Zealand first before expanding (out of their garage) and overseas. He also sees the company exploring the sale of school notes and professional notes.

Better grades, anyone?