In the media

In the media

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1-10 of 34 results

  • Newspaper

    Inside the job of a fake degree and bogus university hunter

    Press

    Nature - University World News

    A Swedish credential evaluator estimates that 10–15% of workers in fields like economics and engineering hold fake degrees or qualifications from unrecognized schools in certain countries. He highlights that credential fraud, a $7-billion-a-year industry often tied to organized crime, involves falsified diplomas, transcripts, and certificates. In a report last year, he called for stricter laws and clear penalties to combat fraudulent credentials and protect academic integrity.

  • Newspaper

    Plagiarism cases surge 10% following the shift to remote learning

    Canada, France, Germany, India, Netherlands, UK

    Press

    - Education Technology

    A survey on plagiarism conducted by Copyleaks collected responses from 31,000 colleges and 20,000 high school students worldwide. The study shows that the largest increase in plagiarized submissions was recorded in the Netherlands, with 26% of cases before COVID compared to 45% after the pandemic, i.e. a total increase of 19%. This was followed by France (37% before vs. 49% after, i.e. - a 12% jump), closely followed by India (42% before vs. 53% after; i.e.- an 11% jump). The UK, Canada and Germany all saw a 4% increase in plagiarism cases.

  • Newspaper

    Post-secondary institutions globally join together to fight academic contract cheating

    USA

    Press

    - KWNow

    The Josephson Institute, which conducts a survey of high school students every two years, reports that while 50% of students admit cheating, 93% are "satisfied with their own ethics and character". A professor at Rutgers University also suggests that half of their students cheat at least once a year. To demonstrate a united global front against cheating, Member institutions from the International Centre for Academic Integrity participate in the 5th annual Day of Action Against Contractual Cheating.

  • Newspaper

    Challenges to eradicating academic corruption

    Press

    Karen MacGregor - University World News

    Corruption is “a pernicious undercurrent” in every country, writes a researcher at International Higher Education at Boston College. In Armenia, Lithuania, Russia, and Ukraine, instructors face the dilemma of either ignoring cheating or taking the risk of dismissing students whose fees sustain the university. One study in Russia found that 72% of students in public universities had plagiarized from the internet. In India, the “survival of many small private universities depends on payments to government officials, recruiters and visiting committees, and fees paid by non-attending students”.

  • Newspaper

    What can universities do to stop students cheating?

    Press

    Elena Denisova - University World News

    Cheating among students has reached unprecedented levels worldwide from academic misconduct among Britain's Russell Group universities from 2014 to 2017; ongoing cheating among student-athletes to enter or to stay at universities in the United States; unauthorized exam assignment sharing in Switzerland; contract cheating in Australia to plagiarism in many Eastern European countries. If universities just declare their integrity but do not practice it, they might not be able to expect it from students.

  • Newspaper

    Call to fight the spread of corruption in Higher Education globally

    Press

    Brendan O'Malley - University World News

    According to a report published by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation and the International Quality Group, corruption in higher education vary between countries but it highlights unethical, inappropriate, and illegal practices. Some examples include university leaders and professors with fake or undeserved doctoral degrees impacting on the governance of some Russian universities, ‘ghost advising’ or absenteeism by senior academics, delegating their responsibilities for teaching or supervision to junior colleagues or research students, is widespread in Kosovo, or students and teachers sexually harassing, threatening or harming academic teaching staff in Uganda.

  • Newspaper

    QA bodies note progress in fighting academic corruption

    Press

    Mary Beth Marklein - University World News

    Early research findings on academic corruption suggest that accreditation and quality assurance bodies in some countries are having success in handling the problem, but questions about how to deal with the unwieldy issue remain a work in progress. And while the topic is complex and multifaceted, research on student attitudes towards cheating offers some insights into how an emphasis on integrity might reverse the problem, which has long been the scourge of the higher education accreditation profession.

  • Newspaper

    Anarchy and exploitation in scientific communication

    Press

    Philip G Altbach - University World News

    Technology, greed, a lack of clear rules and norms, hyper-competitiveness and a certain amount of corruption have resulted in confusion and anarchy in the world of scientific communication. Not too long ago, scientific publication was largely in the hands of university publishers and non-profit scientific societies, most of which were controlled by the academic community. The issues involved are complex – how to manage technology, accommodate the expansion of scientific production, rationalise peer review, break the monopoly of the multinationals and, of great importance, instil a sense of ethics and realistic expectations into the academic community itself.

  • Newspaper

    A peek inside the strange world of fake academia

    Press

    Kevin Carey - New York Times

    Academics need to publish in order to advance professionally, get better jobs or secure tenure. Even within the halls of respectable academia, the difference between legitimate and fake publications and conferences is far blurrier than scholars would like to admit. Some canny operators have now realized that when standards are loose to begin with, there are healthy profits to be made in the grey areas of academe.

  • Newspaper

    Facing up to international students who cheat

    UK

    Press

    Elena Denisova-Schmidt - University World News

    US public universities recorded about five cases of alleged cheating for every 100 foreign students, and only one for every 100 domestic students, in the 2014-15 academic year. In the United Kingdom students from overseas – from outside the European Union – are more than four times as likely to cheat. Many of these cheating students come from countries with endemic corruption or with significantly different academic cultures and standards. Universities should acknowledge this problem and allocate all necessary resources to mitigate academic misconduct involving students.

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