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Three former professors at Oral Roberts University have sued the evangelical institution in Tulsa (Okla) filing a petition in state court that accuses the university's president of using university resources to back a local mayoral candidate and to pay for an extravagant lifestyle for his family. The university released a statement denying the allegations.

Kyrgyz are now focusing on a new standardized test that officials contend will help eradicate graft in universities. Low teacher salaries and the long-standing practice of selling grades make that target a challenge. Many students simply purchase their degrees. In exchange, the instructor allows him to pass without taking exams, or completing the assignments.

Political interference in Africa’s universities is not new. Universities’ governance was seen as ‘captured’ for narrow political rather than academic ends during the 1980s and 1990s. The continent’s universities started changing from the middle of the 1990s. Strong governance structures were prioritised. Governments promised to help steady institutions so they could focus on their academic missions. But studies funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and conducted by CODESRIA, suggest that not much has changed. The same tensions and crises associated with the old political order – student disturbances, harassment of academic staff and widespread academic corruption – persist.

University of Zimbabwe Vice-chancellor has been arrested for allegedly awarding former first lady a doctor of philosophy degree ‘corruptly’ in 2014. Another University of Zimbabwe Professor who supervised the former first lady’s work, is also under probe. Since 2014, there have been claims that the doctorate was fake, but no action was taken while her husband was in power, up until November last year when he was forced to resign as Zimbabwean president.

The Supreme Court of Pakistan last week ordered the removal of a number of university vice-chancellors because they were appointed in violation of the merit-based system. In stern remarks on 22 April over the appointment of vice-chancellors in Punjab province, Pakistan’s Chief Justice said “The Supreme Court cannot tolerate any appointment without transparency as the state of education in the province is in complete disarray,” and that the appointments were not the most senior professors but had close links with government circles.

Members of a special team at the Education Department that had been investigating widespread abuses by for-profit colleges have been marginalized, reassigned or instructed to focus on other matters, according to current and former employees. The investigative team had been created in 2016 after the collapse of the for-profit Corinthian Colleges, which set off a wave of complaints from students about predatory activities at for-profit schools. The institutions had been accused of widespread fraud that involved misrepresenting enrolment benefits, job placement rates and program offerings, which could leave students with huge debts and no degrees.

A Madrid university has suspended an official over a fake degree scandal. The King Juan Carlos University suspended the director of the school's Public Law Institute. The department allegedly awarded master's degrees to two Popular Party (PP) politicians without them completing the work. However the former said last week the university had pressured him to lie about the qualifications. The university's president denies pressuring the director. He also announced on Friday an internal probe into all the university's departments.

Politicians obliged universities to hire friends in return for help in ensuring a steady flow of funds. By forging documents and bribing appropriate officials, university staff secure larger retirement checks than they are entitled to and retire before the customary age.