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Egerton University Vice-Chancellor and eight University Council members have received a 30-day jail term following their failure to implement a court order directing them to pay the lecturers 100% of their salaries. Egerton University Academic Staff Union (UASU) Chapter had filed for contempt after the university imposed a 40% pay cut in 2020 allegedly as a stop-gap measure at the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, the Council failed to produce evidence of the necessity of this measure.

The Government will introduce a new bill aimed at tackling growing incidences of sexual harassment in Nigerian higher education institutions. It prescribes imprisonment of up to 14 years for any academic found guilty of sexual misconduct against students. According to a World Bank survey, 70% of female graduates from Nigerian tertiary institutions were sexually harassed in school by their course-mates and lecturers. It shows the need to strengthen mechanisms in universities and other higher institutions in Nigeria to monitor the activities of both lecturers and students.

The Rwanda Ministry of Education (MINEDUC) has ordered the temporary closure of Rwanda Polytechnic Regional College Kigali, in order to investigate serious cases of theft and misappropriation of public resources. According to sources, college equipment allegedly disappeared, and top officials and several employees involved in the management of the institution have been interrogated and arrested.

Three Georgia women and an Alabama man pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the US Department of Education’s Federal financial aid programs worth millions of dollars. According to the Justice Department, they admitted enrolling people who were not eligible to attend college and completing financial aid applications using fake students’ names; they also did fake students’ homework and exams and manipulated grade requirements to continue qualifying for Federal financial aid.

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission has arrested 59 staff of public and private universities between 2017 and 2022 for bribery, abuse of power, false claims and other financial offences. One of the cases involved a director of a public university recently, allegedly receiving a car as an inducement to help a company obtain a tender worth about RM1.6 million, while a university professor was also arrested over alleged false claims involving a research fund of RM66,000.

The Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) has booked eight persons, including four former employees of the varsity and four private persons for criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust, cheating, forgery, and falsification of accounts. While perusing the details of registration and tuition fees of 16,580 students, the DVAC officials found that the serial number of one demand draft was used multiple times against several students.

The Enumeration Committee of the Federal Government of Nigeria’s homegrown feeding programme has uncovered 349 ghost schools in Nasarawa state. The Committee discovered that some officials were pocketing the money meant for school meals. Two officials were suspended and replaced, however, calls to remove Nasarawa state from the programme were rejected in order to avoid punishing the poor children benefiting from the scheme.

The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority has filed a charge sheet at the Special Court against 11 people for embezzling a huge amount of money from the Council for Technical Education and Vocational Training (CTEVT) to conduct training programmes for teachers. The school administration and CTEVT officials colluded to embezzle state funds by submitting fake bills, including for never conducted trainings.

The Indonesian Anti-Corruption Commission (KPK) has arrested the Rector of the University of Lampung for allegedly receiving IDR5 billion (US$336,000) in bribes from the families of students who failed the university entrance exams known as the autonomous admissions scheme. According to KPK, the ‘autonomous channel’ exam conducted by universities is vulnerable to bribery due to a lack of transparency and specific guidelines from the Ministry of Education, leaving state universities unsupervised.

To prevent the leakage of question papers and other malpractices, the West African Examination Council (WAEC) has tightened the security of the ongoing West African Senior School Certificate Examination. Ten cases of breaches of WAEC rules were identified, including people linked to rogue websites, while the suspects in three cases were convicted and fined by the court. According to the head of Public Affairs of WAECA, schools accused of malpractice will be monitored and confidential material and examination papers will be stored.