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Australian universities plan to monitor students through software like Proctorio or ProctorU as they take exams from home during the coronavirus pandemic. Both platforms require students to grant access to their computer’s webcam, microphone, and keystrokes to prevent cheating. Students and academics are concerned about the lack of full transparency about where data is stored, who can access it, and whether it complies with current Australian regulations.

Perth’s Murdoch University and other universities have become heavily reliant on foreign student fees to bolster their incomes. 50 professors from the Australian Research Council’s Laureate Fellowship condemned the decision to take legal action against an associate professor from the university. Deeply concerned about the integrity of academic teaching, the professor complained on television that the university was not only enrolling international students whose English was inadequate but also allow them to graduate.

The national Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) program revealed that Universities across Australia enroll hundreds of thousands of foreign students simply as ‘cash cows’, however unprepared to undertake degree courses. Academics told ABC they have seen record numbers of academic misconduct cases and more and more international students struggling, some using phone apps to translate lectures. Following the ABC broadcast, the National Tertiary Education Union called for greater public accountability for universities in dealing with international students.

Universities are being urged to block websites that sell essays, identify cheating "hot spots" and consider publishing data on breaches of academic integrity. As universities grapple with a rise in contract cheating – which involves students outsourcing assessments – Australia's higher education watchdog has unveiled new guidelines to tackle the issue. A recent survey by a University of South Australia associate professor who helped create the guidelines, found that 6 per cent of Australian students engaged in cheating.

A secret report by Ernst & Young into credit card use at Murdoch University has revealed its four most senior academics racked up almost AU$1 million (US$753,000) in expenses in two years. Murdoch refused to release the document until The Australian won an appeal to the West Australian Information Commissioner, arguing that the report was in the public interest as it involved the use of taxpayers’ funds. The revelations come after Western Australia’s Corruption and Crime Commission last year described Murdoch’s financial controls over corporate credit cards as “lax” and found that the parameters of card usage were “extremely broad”.

The Chinese government is buying influence over Australian universities by donating libraries and funds for institutes as part of a broader push to strengthen its soft power in the country, two Australian journalists have argued. The debate in Australia echoes concerns in the US, where the Chinese government has been accused of seeking to exert control over the academy by funding Confucius Institutes on university campuses.

Australia's most powerful universities have fallen into line over university admissions standards, recommending wholesale changes in the wake of a Fairfax Media investigation that brought the sector's integrity into question. Up to 99% of applicants for some NSW university degrees have been admitted despite failing to meet the minimum ATAR score advertised for the course.

Doctors, registrars and psychiatrists at some of Sydney's top hospitals have cheated in their medical exams through collusion and sharing illicit photos of examination papers. Documents obtained by Fairfax Media show that some former students of the University of Sydney's medical program have been colluding since at least 2009, with illicit materials such as photographs of examination papers still being shared with current students in the psychiatry, paediatrics and community departments of Sydney's most prestigious medical school.

Universities across Sydney are cracking down on cheating in tertiary assessment tasks, after Fairfax Media revealed chronic misconduct across the sector. The University of Sydney, University of Technology and the University of NSW have all implemented strict new policies on assessments, which include the reintroduction of closed-book exams, question and answer sessions after assessments, a shift away from take-home assignments and a ban on wristwatches in exams.

Federal Education Minister will direct the nation's top education panel to focus on university admissions after a Fairfax Media investigation revealed that the practice of admitting students with lower than the minimum ATAR into university courses was endemic. The move, due to be announced on Wednesday, will see the Higher Education Standards Panel examine options for improving the transparency of student admissions policies. The panel will have up to a year to work on a new university standards framework, which will take effect from January 2017.