Search Page

Some universities in Asia described the artificial intelligence writing tools ChatGPT as the use of “unfair means” while others consider it as a temporary measure until proper policies for their use can be worked out. Unless a student has the course instructor’s written permission, the use of ChatGPT will be regarded as using other people’s work and will be treated in the same way as plagiarism. Teachers can set supplementary oral or written exams or adopt other measures if they suspect ChatGPT or another AI-based tool has been used.

The central figure in the scam in which wealthy parents paid huge sums to cheat on standardised tests has been sentenced to three and a half years in Federal prison. The mastermind of the sprawling college admissions scam known as Operation Varsity Blues pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy, money laundering, and conspiracy

Students at Masvingo Teachers’ College claim that lecturers in the Professional Studies Syllabus and Art Professional Syllabus demand US$10 for students to pass their assignments. If they refuse to meet their demands, the teachers deliberately cause them to fail their assignments or give them lower grades. According to the headmaster of the college, the matter is under investigation.

Gulbarga University vice-chancellor caught five students copying in the first semester examinations during a visit to a college in Kalaburagi district. Three students have also been arrested for using mobile phones during an examination in another incident. Gulbarga University authorities have been accused of leaking question papers and encouraging examination malpractices. In May, the BCom examination had to be postponed after the fifth-semester question paper for Management Accounting got leaked.

According to the Campaigners for Academic Crimes Court, Liberia's education system is overrun by a multitude of "fake graduates" who often pose as academics. Diploma audits are underway at the University of Liberia Faculty Association after two academics have been accused of having fake degrees.

Following the arrest of a lecturer at the University of Kigali over allegedly forging academic documents, Rwanda’s Higher Education Council (HEC) decided to withdraw recognition for PhD degrees obtained from the United States Atlantic International University. The university has an accreditation from a UK based independent international educational agency, however, dismissed by HEC, because it is not a government agency in charge of accreditation in the UK or elsewhere.

Nigeria’s National Universities Commission (NUC) had discovered fake institutions in Benin awarding PhD degrees after students completed bogus studies in less than one year. According to NUC, academic projects and theses were sold for about NGN3,000 (about US$7.32) per copy, and sexual harassment was prevalent. Many of these fraudulent institutions are run by Nigerian proprietors who target students from Nigeria, where public universities struggle to accommodate a high number of qualified students seeking admission.

Five professors at Hassan I University in Settat, Morocco, are under investigation after conversations on social media were leaked in which they were allegedly discussing the ‘sextortion’ of female students for extra credits. The academic community called for a Business Ethics module in the university staff training programmes that would stop promoting such abuses.

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.