The head of an Israeli company that served as the Israeli branch of the University of Latvia and Burlington College was sentenced to 30 months in jail. He was accused of bribing members of Israel's parliament, the Knesset, and other public officials and also of selling degrees to public officials for promotion and pay-increase purposes.
GetEducated.com, an online degree clearinghouse founded by Phillips in 1989, tracks more than 200 fake online colleges in the USA alone, twice that many abroad. The sale of fake degrees, which at an average cost less than 500 dollars per diploma, has become a multi-million dollar business. A fake degree is a fast, cheap way to quality for high paying employment. Search engines accept listing from colleges without screening for accreditation.
The report from Transparency International evaluates the bribes versed to construction contracts in the world to over 300 billions of dollars. Some thirty billions are promised for the reconstruction of Iraq and around 10 billions of dollars are aimed to the reconstruction of South-East Asian countries hit by the tsunami last December.
OECD has, since 1997, been engaged in the fight against corruption among foreign public servants in international transactions. As such, the institution organized last November a conference on the promotion of integrity in the public market. One suggestion is to establish a "Black list" over companies that are or have been involved in corruption.
The newly introduced system of exams for students finishing secondary school is facing a corruption scandal due to questions "leakage". This year the tests are more important than ever before, because they will also serve as university entrance exams. The questions to three of the five required tests began appearing on the eve of the first test. Although it is impossible to know how many of the 87,500 graduating students obtained the questions illegitimately, chances are that they form a majority.
Corruption is today a big problem in Kazakhstan's higher education sector. Lecturers often collude, i.e. if one teacher pass a student as a favour for one colleague, then he/she can count on assistance from the colleague if he/she needs to pass one of his/her students. In exams, some lecturers ask very difficult, even nonsensical questions making the tests impossible to pass without coming to an "arrangement". Also falsification of records happens after request from heads of departments, deans of faculties etc.
231 students have obtained degree certificates from a Nairobi university with no official sanction to operate. As a result the certificates risk be useless. The Government did nothing to stop these students pursuing an expensive four-year programme.
Recently 231 university students learnt that the degrees they had been awarded were recognized. The university in question, Newport University, which also exists in the USA, is not accredited by any agency recognised by the US Department of Education. It is one of several institutions operating in California without accreditation but with licensure by the Bureau of Private and Vocational Higher Education of the State of California.
No action has been taken against a school accused for embezzling of over Sh7 million meant for buying a bus. No audit report had been conducted at the school for the last seven years as the school head had failed to submit the accounts.
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