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KU Leuven is currently investigating some 20 papers from the period 1999 to 2013 that would contain fraudulent images. Two papers have recently been withdrawn, one has been officially corrected. The investigation of the Committee for Academic Integrity is in a final phase. The articles that are under discussion come from the biomedical sciences. Three Leuven professors are a co-author of several indicated papers. In many cases, this was done in collaboration with colleagues from foreign institutions.

"There are many of us who walk around with our communication detectors," says the chairman of the Joint Technical Competitions (CCP) – soon to change its name to CCINP for the 2019 session - which is the gateway for dozens of Technical schools, and brings together up to 4,000 exam candidates on a single site. Between digital watches and connected glasses, exam cheating has taken a modern turn, and so has exam surveillance.

A Singaporean tutor has admitted to helping six Chinese students cheat in their 2016 exams in what prosecutors say was an elaborate plot. The tutor took the exams as a private candidate and FaceTimed questions to accomplices who then rang students and read answers to them, prosecutors say. The students snuck in mobile phones and Bluetooth devices and wore earphones during their exams. The plot was uncovered after an invigilator noticed unusual sounds coming from one of the students involved, prosecutors said.

The number of students caught cheating at the UK’s top universities has shot up by a third in three years, with experts warning that institutions are ignoring the problem. A senior teaching fellow at Imperial College London and one of the UK’s leading experts on essay cheating, said: “A growing number of young people also feel more pressure than ever before, often turning to cheating to help them get through their degrees. It’s also easier to access websites that offer paid-to-order essays”.

Over 500 candidates had to re-sit for their Primary School Leaving Examinations after the National Examination Council of Tanzania (NECTA) discovered that some schools had leaked the examinations. According to the NECTA executive secretary, the leaked examinations were distributed through WhatsApp groups and primary schools. This was done in a well-orchestrated collaboration involving owners of the schools, supervisors, and authorities responsible for storing the exam papers at Nyanduga Primary School, Rorya.

The Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ), which represents the seven largest qualification providers in the UK, commissioned an independent report into exam malpractice. Police are investigating an exam leak after a number of students had advance sight of part of a General Certificate of Secondary Education religious studies paper. Another A-level maths paper was offered for sale via social media. Two questions from the paper first appeared on Twitter, offering students the whole paper for £70.

According to the International Center for Academic Integrity, about 68 % of undergraduate students and about 43 % of graduate students admit to cheating on tests or in written assignments. Several studies point to a similar problem in high school. Technology has made it easier to cheat in exams and on writing assignments, but it is also making it increasingly easier to be caught.

Academics say the use of the electronic device is difficult to police in crowded exam halls. There has been an increased number of breaches of exam regulations, up from 56 last year to 83. Trinity College recorded 42 breaches of exam regulations this year, along with 10 incidents of cheating. This has prompted a number of UK colleges introduced blanket bans on wristwatches of any kind.

According to a computer scientist and expert in contract cheating, Kenya has established itself as the centre of the academic cheating universe. The vast majority of university students’ work for essay factories which are delivered to British students with a guarantee they contain no plagiarism and all anonymous. In an effort to clamp down on the cheats and after pressure from the British Government, PayPal announced it would block payments to essay factories.

The Minister of Education announced that cheats selling their services to Australian university students would face two years imprisonment or fines of up to AU$100,000. Students who cheat will also be subject to their institutions’ own academic integrity policies and sanctions. The Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency will be empowered to request legal measures to force internet service providers and search engines to block cheating websites.