Recently, university teachers have swapped student term papers for assignments to write entries for the free online encyclopedia.

"The vast majority of Wikipedia entries aren't very good," said Beasley-Murray, but said the site aims to be academically sound.

To reach its goal of academic standards, said Wikipedia's web site, it set up an assessment scale on its English-language site. The best encyclopedia entries are ranked as "Featured Articles," and run each day on the home page at http://www.wikipedia.com.

Of more than 10 million articles in 253 languages, only about 2,000 have reached "Featured Article" status, it said.

In May, three entries created by nine students in the course became the first student works to reach Wikipedia's top rank.