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Academic corruption linked to the COVID-19 pandemic highlights the urgency of strengthening transparency and accountability in African universities. Such corruption includes research malpractice, questionable research management, mismanagement of research funds and procurement fraud. Several university officials bypassed public procurement procedures for the purchase of materials and equipment for coronavirus research. 33 papers were identified as unsuitable for public use and either retracted, withdrawn, or noted with concern.

According to reports from the National Examinations Board, the Malawi School Certificate of Education (MSCE) English tests have been leaked. Answers had already been posted on social networks while candidates were waiting to take the test. Police in Lilongwe arrested three students from Kabwabwa Community Day Secondary School after they were found discussing a theory paper on agriculture that had been administered during the MSCE exams on Monday. Investigations are underway to establish the source of the leak.

Women and girl child rights activists are calling for tougher and broader sexual harassment guidelines at institutions of higher learning in Uganda to avert cases of lecturers and other university administrators taking advantage of the students they teach. After indecently assaulted a student in 2018, a former administrator at Makerere University has been sentenced to only two years in prison or he has the option to pay a fine of UGX4 million (US$1,080). The 2019 Annual Police Crime Report for Uganda tallied sexual violence-related cases, including assault and rape, at 1,528.

According to the director of Higher Education Resource Services South Africa (HERS-SA) paper, 41 (50%) of women had experienced bullying in higher education workplace. Several South African institutions, including the University of Cape Town (UCT), the University of Venda, and UNISA, have been in the news over claims of bullying, amid other controversies. At UCT, the Vice-Chancellor was accused of bullying by 37 UCT academics and staff members. Research also shows that some victims are bullied because they observed and spoke up about corruption, or even worse when they were forced to be part of corrupt processes.

In order to ensure that only genuine qualifications cross borders, The Kenya National Qualifications Authority (KNQA) joined the African Qualifications Verification Network, an initiative of the African Union to support the mobility of students and workers on the continent. Under the regulation developed in 2018, anyone seeking employment in Kenya with foreign qualifications must be assessed by the KNQA and granted a certificate of recognition or verification.

Ten out of 15 students in Tanzania admitted they had plagiarized on a regular basis without being noticed by their supervisor. They used fraudulent ways to graduate because professors either did not have the time to critically look at the students work or may notice it was plagiarized but took it as an opportunity to get bribes. According to a lecturer at Tumaini University Makumira, some of his colleagues assign or approve projects that already exist in the institution’s libraries.

After verifying 4,473 employees in the state's three senatorial regions, the Benue State Education Service Board removed 18 dead teachers among the 433 ghost workers found on the state government payroll Moreover, 70 retirees and 193 redeployed employees were uncovered among other irregularities on the payroll such as the lack of utility vehicles and overhead costs. The state Governor charged TBS to ensure the ghost names are deleted from the payment voucher.

In Ghana, it is common to find journalists, university teachers, and government officials plagiarizing other people’s works. Recently, a senior lecturer at the University of Professional Studies, who is also the Head of the Banking and Finance Department, plagiarized a Facebook post and sent it to the Daily Graphic, which published it, both online and in print. When the lecturer was caught, he denied the offense, until the author of the content found sufficient evidence against him. University authorities have never investigated the case.

Transparency International Zimbabwe reports that many students are put under pressure to have sex for good grades, but when they bravely report this, justice is often hard to achieve. Sextortion in which sex, rather than money, is the currency of the bribe is not yet legally recognized as a form of corruption most universities in Zimbabwe do not have a clear policy for identifying and addressing such cases. There is no legal framework that recognizes sextortion as a form of corruption, and the police also have a limited understanding of it.

Cases of plagiarism at Rwandan universities have decreased. Students are required to submit their assignments and dissertations to the anti-plagiarism software, Turnitin before submitting them for grading. An acceptable work needs to be less than 15% or the student is disqualified and cannot graduate.