In the media

A Moroccan court sentenced a university professor and four others for bribery and illegally selling master’s degree placements at Ibn Zohr University. The case highlighted the need for major reforms, including more transparency in admissions, stronger oversight, digital systems, and stricter anti-corruption measures to restore confidence in the education system.

In its fight against forged certificates and corruption, Kuwait ordered all public and private sector employees to verify their academic certificates via the Sahel e-government app. The Civil Service Commission highlighted penalties of imprisonment and fines for using forged certificates. The move falls within ongoing efforts to combat forged certificates in both the public and private sectors to ensure academic integrity, equality and justice.

Machine learning analysis found that around 10% of cancer research papers over the past 25 years, including top journals, were linked to retracted paper mill publications, rising to 15% recently. Flagged papers appeared in multiple countries e.g. China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, or Egypt, highlighting a global challenge to medical research reliability and integrity.

Kuwait’s Court of Cassation sentenced three education Ministry employees including the head of the ministry’s secret printing unit, a teacher, and another staffer for leaking confidential high school exam papers. The breach occurred within the Ministry’s secure printing unit, where classified papers were distributed in exchange for personal favors.

Moroccan authorities arrested a university professor and six others in a master’s degree scam, involving sales for financial and political gain. The scandal highlights concern about transparency, protection for whistle-blowers, and integrity in degree awarding. Calls intensify for comprehensive investigations and reforms to restore academic and public trust.

Iraq’s higher education faces a corruption crisis, with credential fraud, poor infrastructure, and low enrollment (19%) far below the regional average. Private universities suffer from nepotism, bribery, and political influence. Nearly half (48%) of universities are in Baghdad, 10% in Karbala, while regions like Nineveh, Anbar, and Salah al-Din have just 1%, according to the National Development Plan 2018–2022. The report calls for investment in infrastructure, faculty, and research, and stricter private sector regulations.

A recent Institute for East European Studies study highlights the significant threat hijacked journals pose to scientific integrity. The research reveals that papers in these journals exhibit extremely high levels of plagiarism, with 66% of the sample containing plagiarized content. Most of these papers come from authors in developing countries, suggesting that weaker ethical norms and research practices contribute to the problem.

The proliferation of fake degrees in Iraq poses a serious threat to the country's educational system. Forged certificates undermine the value of genuine academic achievements, promoting fraud and deception, which erodes trust in state institutions. Since 2003, the issue has worsened, with the Iraqi parliament even passing laws that seem to protect forgers, such as the 2020 certificate equivalency law. To counteract this, the government must impose stricter penalties, uphold integrity in leadership, and reinforce educational oversight to ensure the credibility of genuine qualifications.

A survey of 1,054 students in the United Arab Emirates and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia found that 92% of students had some knowledge of academic integrity issues, from how to avoid plagiarism, to the consequences of cheating, to where to get help with references. The majority had heard about these issues from a member of the academic staff, showing a promising trend towards open communication within institutions about academic integrity. There were differences between male and female respondents, with male students being more aware of the workshops offered by their university while female students were more familiar with the concept of avoiding plagiarism. The survey also highlights the importance of academic integrity and provides useful information for educators.

Questions and answers for the annual university entrance exams Concours have been sold in exchange for $10,000-20,000 to secure placement at top universities. Telegram’s social media channel published the test questions half an hour after the exam started, as evidence of their leakage. But according to the head of the Ministry of Higher Education's assessment organisation, 480 participants who had tried to use digital equipment to receive answers to the test questions from outside have been arrested.