The National Audit Office (NAO) has revealed concerns about organized crime exploiting lax oversight in England's unregulated colleges, potentially profiting from student loan fraud amounting to £60 million. The report highlights instances of fraud and abuse at private higher education providers offering courses in collaboration with mainstream universities. Some providers allegedly enroll students with little interest in completing courses to access government-backed maintenance loans, leading to substantial financial gains through tuition fees and franchising fees.

The Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus) is requesting a meeting with Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Higher Education in response to allegations of corruption within the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS). The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) claims to possess recordings of meetings between the NSFAS board chairperson and a representative of NSFAS service providers. According to OUTA, these recordings suggest that service providers paid substantial kickbacks to the Higher Education Minister and the SA Communist Party (SACP) in exchange for tenders.

An audit report reveals the State Educational Loan Fund has been plagued by violations and corruption since 1997 when it began granting loans to students pursuing Higher education abroad. The main finding of the investigation is that 90 percent of the loans were granted to high-level officials, their children, and those who had access to confidential information. There was no transparency or fair competition in the allocation of loans.

Three Georgia women and an Alabama man pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud the US Department of Education’s Federal financial aid programs worth millions of dollars. According to the Justice Department, they admitted enrolling people who were not eligible to attend college and completing financial aid applications using fake students’ names; they also did fake students’ homework and exams and manipulated grade requirements to continue qualifying for Federal financial aid.

The South African Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) has uncovered “multimillion-rand tender corruption” at the National Student Financial Aid Scheme and has handed over all information to the Special Investigating Unit. OUTA said its revelations follow an investigation into corruption and irregular contracts at the Services Sector Education and Training Authority after a successful Promotion of Access to Information application relating to a ZAR170 million (US$9.6 million) tender for a biometric attendance monitoring system.

Two employees at the Higher Education Students’ Loans and Grants Board (HESLGB) have been arrested in Lilongwe for allegedly stealing through a private university, MWK335 million (US$326,000) meant for student loans between 2018 and 2019. Failing to pay rent and provide loans to students at the tertiary institutions, the university made a proposal to the board for a donation of MWK10 million (US$9,750). The board instead sent MWK300 million and asked the university to return the additional money to various accounts belonging to employees at the loans board.

The US Attorney’s Office arrested a nurse practitioner on federal charges of wire fraud, financial aid fraud and aggravated identity theft. She used doctors’ pedigree information and forged signatures to certify disability diagnoses that got more than $10.5 million in loans discharged for at least 125 people. She defrauded the federal Department of Education's Total and Permanent Disability discharge program, which relieves the student loans of those who suffer from permanent physical or mental disabilities.

The director of the Training Domain, an educational institution in Fort Meyers designed to improve students ‘employability skills, has been charged with 10 counts of wire fraud and one count of Federal Student Assistance (FSA) fraud. From July 2017 to April 2019, she assisted students in applying for financial aid but instead of using the loan and grant proceeds to hold classes and for other educational expenses, the director kept the FSA fund and split them with students. She also created false and fraudulent high school diplomas.

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.