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Some students pass their exams by sheer luck, others may do so thanks to their connected watch. This concentration of technology is the 2017 version of notes hidden up a sleeve, and is the object of choice for those wishing to solve equations while appearing to count the minutes. Watches, calculators, smartphones ... all are now on the radar of exam organizers and supervisors. 911 suspected instances of cheating were identified during the 2016 exam period, with more than half followed by sanctions.

The scale of student misconduct in Ukraine has been exposed by a survey of undergraduates that found nearly half have paid bribes and almost all admitted to plagiarism and cheating on exams. Of 600 students surveyed at public universities in Lviv -- a city in the west of Ukraine seen as relatively uncorrupt -- 48 percent had paid bribes. Bribery was far more common for compulsory modules like physical education and workplace safety, and professional programs like business, law and medicine, it found.

The number of students caught cheating in Welsh universities has risen by almost 50% in two years. The president of the students’ union at Bangor University said the rise was down to better monitoring of students’ work rather than a new trend. According to the deputy president of NUS Wales, students often cheat because “they’re facing an incredible amount of pressure and they don’t feel able to seek the support they need”. She encourages students considering academic malpractice to reach out, as help is available.

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 Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Foreign Affairs last week interviewed three agencies that recruit and offer scholarships to local students to study abroad. The meeting came in the wake of revelations that a number of Zimbabwean locals have been falling prey to dubious agencies based in Harare who offer fake university scholarships to study in Cyprus with most students ending up stranded in the island country. Many of these students end up being forced into crime and prostitution in order to survive and pay for their tuition. The Zimbabwean Government is currently seeking the release and extradition of three Zimbabwean students who are held in prison in Cyprus for drug trafficking.

Immediately after the President was elected, borrower advocates and lawmakers expressed concern about what would happen to the current regulations aimed at holding for-profit colleges accountable. On Tuesday, their concerns were validated. The Education Department announced that it would delay and renegotiate two of the previous administration’s signature regulations: the first aims to penalize programs whose graduates’ loan payments exceed a set percentage of their earnings, while the second simplifies the process for borrowers who say they have been defrauded by their colleges.

A growing number of students are being suspended from Swedish universities because they have been caught cheating.In its review of 33 universities in Sweden, TT newswire found 733 students had been suspended due to cheating in 2016. A recurring question, which is difficult to answer, is whether a high number of suspensions is due to extensive cheating, or the result of a persistent hunt for cheaters. According to the same logic, it is difficult to know if few suspensions means a university has few cheaters, or if it is simply bad at catching them.

A letter from the Digital Education Director authorizes the use by schools of the digital services of Google, Apple, Facebook or Amazon, much to the dismay of the CNIL and the unions. Marks, comments of teaching staff, attendance records ... What if companies or headhunters had such precious "behavioral" data on hand to assess their future recruits? This could be a way to differentiate between two resumes and begin true profiling for positions.

The entrance exam at Rangsit University has been canceled after students were caught using wireless spy cameras in eyeglasses to capture exam questions and receive responses through linked smartwatches. Similar devices like Cheating Watch can store PDF, Word, and other documents or Invisible Watch displays nothing but cheat notes become visible when viewed with special glasses. In an attempt to eliminate the problem of differentiating between watches during examinations, some Australian universities have implemented bans on all wristwatches.