In the media

Three former professors at Oral Roberts University have sued the evangelical institution in Tulsa (Okla) filing a petition in state court that accuses the university's president of using university resources to back a local mayoral candidate and to pay for an extravagant lifestyle for his family. The university released a statement denying the allegations.

Makarere University, in Uganda, one of the most prestigious universities in Africa may revoke 200 degrees awarded in the past years after an internal committee charged with investigating academic fraud, discovered that students have been enrolled without any evidence that they met admissions criteria.

According to the report of the general inspection of the administration of the national education and the research (IGAENR), the evaluation of the students at the university is not good. Actually, the fragmentation of the evaluations (due to the transition to the half yearly of the studies connected to the passage in the LMD) and the complexity of rules, return the illegible system for the students. It also entails disparities of treatment; thus universities develop their own rules of evaluation: the faculties with big workforce opt for the multiple choice question paper, faster and easy to organize. Besides, the cheating is another factor that undermine the credibility of the diplomas: according to the questioned students, between 25 and 50 % of the students resort to it.

The Head of the Department of Economic Crimes Prevention of the Ministry of the Interior said in July 2006 that there were 210 cases of bribery registered in higher education institutions in that year, of which 11 were in Kiev. He mentioned a departmental chair in Lugansk who demanded that students pay his bills from the electronics and construction stores and he accepted cash as well. The corrupt chair was arrested while receiving a bribe of $2000. In yet another case, deputy-director of the Kiev National University's college was arrested while receiving a bribe of $6000. The number of investigated cases appears to be the tip of the iceberg as corruption in education is believed to be widespread.

A member of the commission responsible for the examinations at the end of the first cycle of secondary (BEPC) and 50 other persons have been arrested. According to the police, they stole copies of the tests before the start of the exams. Using new technology, they swiftly copied the questions and put them on sale for students and parents in some areas of the country.

One third of the professors of Kragujevac University Law School, its dean and the Minister's assistant for Higher Education were arrested on corruption charges. Professors are accused of allowing students to pass exams without taking tests and selling degrees in exchange of bribes. This unprecedented corruption scandal casts doubts on the value of some law degrees and the qualification of some judges.

There is a certain frustration at the Mpraeso Secondary School over the administration's attempts to improve accountability and transparency. The implementation of anti-corruption measures through the automation of accounting and administrative procedures as a means of checking and curbing corruption has been bogged by official apathy. The computerization programme, 'School Management Programme', that could have cost the school about ¢5 million a few months ago will now cost the school almost double that amount.

Federal government has blacklisted 232 individuals from participating in the conduct of examinations. The affected persons include school principals, supervisors, invigilators and examiners. 324 secondary schools had earlier been derecognized as centers for public examinations. The state had over 50 of its schools blacklisted in the exercise.

The Rwanda National Examinations Council (RNEC) has stepped up efforts to crack down on academic fraudsters. The organisations will have to pass academic testimonials of all applicants to RNEC for scrutiny before they select the competent employees.

The Department of Education has organized a campaign to urged parents of public and private school students to join the government in its fight against corruption. The department has launched a new Graft and Corruption Prevention Education Teaching Exemplars (GCPETE) which will be used by public school teachers to integrate anti-graft and corruption lessons in values education for elementary and schools.