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The Education CS wants universities selling degrees to politicians de-registered. He said the government is planning a major shake-up in higher education, including a crackdown on private universities, from next year. "I am happy now that councils have began to bite and strip people of their degrees. We would like to see more universities do that together with CUE and the Education ministry," he said on Monday during the AMFREF graduation ceremony. The crackdown will target institutions operating contrary to the statutory provisions guiding the higher education sector. Among those targeted are those operating on letters of interim authority beyond the statutory period.

Ugandan police have made no arrests among the 88 suspects – some of them alleged to be politicians and business people – implicated in the altering or forging of marks at Makerere University, months after university officials reported the offences. Up to 69 degrees are to be cancelled at Makerere University following the findings of a university audit initiated in September. The audit report, which is not available to the public, has revealed that results were altered at senate level after lecturers and college and school registrars made their submissions.

An awareness campaign against widespread corruption in universities, which includes bribery by students to get good results, false diplomas and sex to gain promotion, has been launched by CONAC, the national anti-corruption commission. According to a source “The main kind of corruption here is the sale of grades by certain teachers. Students whose work is bad get teachers or education officials to improve their grades”. CONAC found instances of nepotism, counterfeiting of results, false diplomas, promotions in return for sex, and abuse of power.

Member of the committee on education and scientific research of the House of Representatives called for installing cameras in all examination halls at Egyptian universities to prevent cheating and lack of discipline. He will send the proposal to the Ministry of Higher Education as cameras will prevent and detect the growing incidents of mass copying by students and reveal any problem that would happen between students and monitors in the exam. This move is part of Egypt’s efforts to enhance the quality of the country’s university education and to deter churning out low quality graduates especially since the country’s examination system has been plagued by cheating over the recent years especially in high schools.

The executive director of National Council for Higher Education (NHCE) noted that a number people including public servants have been rushing to obtain academic certificates without even attending classes. He warned that universities found issuing such certificates risk having their charters and letters of interim authorities withdrawn. He added that the council was keen to ensure the 'fake' degrees' rush stops in efforts to streamline higher education in Uganda. He also expressed concern over cases of university students missing their marks, thus denying them the opportunity to graduate in time.

A higher education qualifications framework aimed, inter alia, at curbing the proliferation of fake certificates will be in place at the start of January 2018. In terms of the new Kenya National Qualifications Framework, a national database of qualifications, publishing codes and guidelines will be maintained; an annual report on the status of qualifications will be produced; and interrelationships and linkages across national qualifications in consultation with stakeholders will be reviewed. The framework will also provide accurate graduate data to prospective employers.

Last month a student at Mount Kenya University, lost a case in the High Court in which she was challenging her suspension from the university over exam cheating. The judge dismissed the suit after he found that the disciplinary process the university followed was a fair administrative action. The student had gone to court to seek redress, arguing that the yardstick used by the university’s disciplinary committee to arrive at its verdict was unfair, excessive and in violation of the Constitution and her right to a fair hearing. So far, cheating in examinations in universities is widespread not just in Kenya but in most parts of the world.

Up to 88 people at Makerere University, one of Africa’s most prestigious universities, have been apprehended for possible prosecution over the alteration of student marks in an investigation that is expected to see the withdrawal of some of the university’s law degrees dating back to 2011. The development comes days after Makerere University announced that it will recall law degrees awarded irregularly to students over the past decade amid claims of forged and altered results.

Massive leaks have discredited the country’s education system. The French, history and geography tests will resume on 10 July. At the Immaculate Conception School of Dakar, a candidate for the baccalaureate was caught by the exam supervisor as he was consulting the answers to the history and geography tests on his laptop. This discovery of cheating at the Immaculate Conception School triggered a tsunami that is now shaking up the entire Senegalese education system.

Following a directive in late-2016 of the President of the 5th-Phase Government of Tanzania, verification (by a Special Presidential Task Force) of the academic credentials of reportedly 400 035 civil servants who draw emoluments from Government coffers unearthed much rot! The probe revealed that 9,932 public service employees got where they are today on the back of educational certificates which were either forged outright, borrowed, bought or stolen.