In the media

Kenya is a major hub for academic ghostwriting, with an estimated 40,000 shadow scholars in Nairobi alone, producing essays, dissertations, and coursework for international students. Earnings range from under 1 GBP per page to thousands of pounds for dissertations. Despite the 2022 ban on essay mills in the UK, ghostwriting practices persist, now increasingly intertwined with generative AI.

The chairperson of Ghana’s Education Committee blamed corruption, nepotism, and poor oversight for a £40 million (approx. 53 million USD) debt in the foreign scholarship scheme. Irregular awards, costly short-term courses, and lack of accountability led to students being stranded abroad. Parliament now seeks reforms, including tighter supervision and a new scholarship authority board to ensure transparency.

There has been a tenfold increase in the number of students using a false alternative address while living at home to claim for a higher rate of living costs, according to figures released by the ministry of higher education and science, and more than three-quarters of those caught cheating were international students. In 2015 only six students were identified as having cheated with regard to the address provided; and for the first 10 months of 2017 the number was 66. Of these, 50 were either immigrants or children of immigrants, while 16 were Danish citizens, the ministry indicated.

The Higher Education Ministry of Oman has banned four Malaysian universities due to alleged academic and administrative abuses by the varsities. In total, there are 378 Omani students enrolled in the four universities. The Times of Oman, in its report, stated that the Committee for the Recognition of Non-Omani Higher Education Institutions and the Equivalence of Educational Qualifications in the Oman Higher Education Ministry had issued a decision to stop dealing with these universities. It said Omani students were not allowed to attend the educational institutions following the decision. Representatives from one of the universities claim that the Ministry’s action is ‘unwarranted’.

The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Foreign Affairs last week interviewed three agencies that recruit and offer scholarships to local students to study abroad. The meeting came in the wake of revelations that a number of Zimbabwean locals have been falling prey to dubious agencies based in Harare who offer fake university scholarships to study in Cyprus with most students ending up stranded in the island country. Many of these students end up being forced into crime and prostitution in order to survive and pay for their tuition. The Zimbabwean Government is currently seeking the release and extradition of three Zimbabwean students who are held in prison in Cyprus for drug trafficking.