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Thousands of KwaZulu-Natal children have been forced to go to school on an empty stomach. This comes after the collapse of the KZN National School Nutrition Programme due to tender irregularities and corruption. The provincial Department of Education is yet to provide information regarding this issue.

The Professor of Education at the University of Stellenbosch and President of the South African Academy of Sciences highlights the extent of corruption in South African universities. He stresses that university councils, which function similarly to the boards of other entities, are often used for partisan politics, so the solution to corruption is to depoliticize it.

Bias in research and its benefits, power imbalances and other inequities has long plagued scientific collaboration. “Unfairness, inequity and a lack of diversity must no longer prevent the global research enterprise from maximizing scientific integrity and realizing the ultimate societal value and benefits of research”, write ethics experts in the Cape Town Statement on Fostering Research Integrity through Fairness and Equity. The statement includes 20 recommendations to guide all stakeholders in achieving more just research practice.

The new book “Corrupted: A study of chronic dysfunction in South African universities” is an account of chronic corruption rooted in a political economy framework combined with a lack of governance and management capacity and academic integrity. These universities are all located in resource-poor areas where the university is the main source of funding and an opportunity for corruption, ranging from contracts (such as building projects) to services (such as transport), to student accommodation and the sale of fake certificates.

Ethical bodies in Sub-Saharan Africa face challenges in their capacity to perform their work due to a lack of ICT resources and academic training in ethics and regulatory affairs. €1.5 million (about US$1.62 million) has been granted to Benin, the Gambia, and Ivory Coast to install the Research for Health and Innovation Organiser software, a cloud-based platform that could make the work of such bodies more efficient while enabling them to improve ethical conduct and research integrity, review processes, build capacities in oversight and monitoring.

The Quality Council for General and Further Education and Training (Umalusi) is concerned about the allegations of cheating involving candidates and teachers. According to the reports, the candidates in question paid teachers to have access to the answers posted on a WhatsApp group during toilet breaks while the examinations were in session. While an investigation is conducted by the Department of Basic Education, the CEO of Umalusi reassured the public that rigorous and robust quality assurance mechanisms will be used to safeguard the integrity and credibility of the National Senior Certificate.

The Inter-University Council for East Africa and member states from the East African Community need to address the issue of poor quality of education in private universities operating without minimum requirements. Members of the East African Legislative Assembly are concerned about those “quack universities” where students are tricked into enrolling but later fail to graduate after the universities have closed. This is the case of Kampala University, which opened a branch in Juba but closed without informing students, leaving them stranded.

Academic dishonesty including dissertation fraud is on rise universities in Africa. Only 24 African countries out of 54 have institutional repositories. This means that dissertations and other sources of information that can be plagiarised only exist in hard copies. According to a professor from Uganda, one way to eliminate contract writing is to establish a rigorous process throughout the dissertation writing and defence process. The president of the Southern African Students Union believes that paying lecturers decent salaries will lead to a decrease in the number of people engaging in ghost-writing for students.