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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.

The Higher Education Ministry of Oman has banned four Malaysian universities due to alleged academic and administrative abuses by the varsities. In total, there are 378 Omani students enrolled in the four universities. The Times of Oman, in its report, stated that the Committee for the Recognition of Non-Omani Higher Education Institutions and the Equivalence of Educational Qualifications in the Oman Higher Education Ministry had issued a decision to stop dealing with these universities. It said Omani students were not allowed to attend the educational institutions following the decision. Representatives from one of the universities claim that the Ministry’s action is ‘unwarranted’.

As part of its drive to clamp down on excessive tutoring and elite private schools that prepare students for the best universities, the South Korean government has ordered almost a dozen universities to revamp their admissions tests to bring them more in line with the normal high school curriculum. The ministry of education has said it will look into punishing the universities who have violated the regulations, including a partial ban on recruiting students for the 2019 academic year. Meanwhile, the Korean Council for University Education found that more than 1,500 college admission essays submitted to universities last year were suspected of being plagiarised.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has released the Draft UGC (Promotion of Academic Integrity and Prevention of Plagiarism in Higher Education Institutions) Regulations, 2017. As the name suggests, the aim of the draft is to create academic awareness about responsible conduct of research and prevention of misconduct including plagiarism in academic writing. The draft also seeks to establish institutional mechanism for promotion of academic integrity and develop systems to detect and prevent plagiarism.

With some using unscrupulous ways just to get titles and academic qualifications, the Government is stepping up its efforts to prevent another avenue from being misused – honorary doctorates. The usage of the honorary “Dr” title is limited to within the awarding university, recipients aren’t allowed to put the “Dr” title in front of their names in public. As a reminder to be vigilant about any misrepresentation and use of fraudulent awards, the Higher Education Ministry sent out guidelines in March on the issuance of honorary doctorates.

The friend of South Korea’s former president who was impeached in March, was last week sentenced to three years in prison for soliciting university favours for her daughter. The Seoul Central District Court on Friday found her guilty of ‘obstruction of duty’ by exerting influence on Ewha Womans University to give undue favours to her 21-year-old daughter, using her ties with the former president. The president’s friend pleaded not guilty to the indictment, arguing that she never asked for special treatment for her daughter.

Leading English academics and former HSC chief examiners have warned that plans to make HSC English exams shorter and put word limits on answers will make it easier for students to game the system and will "further fuel the HSC tutoring industry". The submission warns that the tutoring industry would benefit from the introduction of shorter answers because students would pay to be taught how to "memorise and then reproduce" 600-word responses for their exams.

A school operator that runs the Okayama University of Science, owned by a close friend of the prime minister, has been linked to the zero-cost acquisition of city-owned property. The Prime Minister's office may have been involved, leaked documents show. The school was planning to open a veterinary department in Imabari in western Japan. A recently disclosed document claimed the Prime Minister was supporting the school "at the highest level," although the department had not received government approval to build in 52 years.