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You can now go to jail for faking a degree on your CV According to South Africa's (SA) National Qualifications Framework Act, falsely or fraudulently claiming a higher education qualification is a criminal offence subject to a prison sentence or a fine. Bragging that you have a doctorate or other degree on LinkedIn or Twitter bio, can be enough to get you into serious trouble. Under the new Law, operators of bogus institutions will also face jail for up to five years if claiming to be registered as education institutions in SA or abroad.

According to a report published by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation and the International Quality Group, corruption in higher education vary between countries but it highlights unethical, inappropriate, and illegal practices. Some examples include university leaders and professors with fake or undeserved doctoral degrees impacting on the governance of some Russian universities, ‘ghost advising’ or absenteeism by senior academics, delegating their responsibilities for teaching or supervision to junior colleagues or research students, is widespread in Kosovo, or students and teachers sexually harassing, threatening or harming academic teaching staff in Uganda.

The university "Laique Advantiste de Kigali" (Unilak) has defied a directive from the Education ministry requiring it to submit academic credentials of recruited lecturers for verification. According to sources in the ministry, the university leadership continues to recruit students. Unilak secured a provisional license but the ministry nevertheless refused to grant it the degree-awarding accreditation, citing lack of capacity to provide quality education.