Macquarie University has revoked the degrees of two students and prevented a further 10 from graduating after an independent investigation revealed the students used an online ghost-writing service to complete their assignments.

The northern Sydney university is the latest institution to finalise its internal investigations into the MyMaster cheating racket, in which up to 1000 students from 16 universities hired the online company MyMaster to write their assignments and sit for online tests.

In December, Fairfax Media provided Macquarie University with evidence of 128 requests from students for assignments from the MyMaster site, including copies of the purchased assignments, bank receipts showing proof of payment and, in some instances, suspected names and student numbers of those involved. Most of the assignments were fully referenced, ready-to-submit pieces of work and cost between $50 and $700.

A spokesperson for Macquarie University confirmed that 36 students "were found responsible for use of the MyMaster website in violation of both the University's academic honesty policy and student code of conduct".

The University's Disciplinary Committee issued fail grades to each student in the units for which they submitted ghost-written assignments, leaving 10 students unable to graduate "as they no longer meet the academic requirements for their degree", the spokesperson said.

In the most severe disciplinary action to result from MyMaster crackdown, two students who had since graduated from the university have had their degrees revoked.

"Both were given fail grades for the relevant units and advised that as they no longer met the academic requirements of their degrees, the degrees would be formally withdrawn," the spokesperson said.

The remaining 36 students are under academic probation until the completion of their studies and have been instructed to complete an ethics assessment assigned by the university.

The penalties imposed by Macquarie University come as the state's other major universities finalise their disciplinary hearings.

In March, Fairfax Media revealed up to 70 students from five of NSW's leading universities were under investigation in connection with their dealings with the MyMaster website, which was run by tutoring school entrepreneur Yingying Dou. The University of Newcastle - the only other institution to have finalised its investigation - issued 24 fail grades, expelled two students and suspended a further eight for using the MyMaster service. All of the 31 students penalised were international students based at the University of Newcastle's Sydney campus.

The cheating racket also exposed significant weaknesses in the University of Sydney's plagiarism detection methods, with only five students identified from the 40 fraudulent assignments provided to the university by Fairfax Media.

Documents obtained under freedom of information also revealed that the state's most prestigious university had no intention of pursuing students who may have graduated with the assistance of purchased assignments, with email correspondence revealing the administration had eliminated from its inquiry "those who have left the university for one reason or another".

Herald journalist Amy McNeilage is a finalist in the Walkley Awards Young Journalist of the Year for her work exposing the MyMaster cheating.