The National Universities Commission (NUC) has announced the existence of no fewer than forty-one illegal universities. These institutions have existed for years and fleeced unsuspecting members of the public of their hard earned resources in the guise of providing them with higher education.

Once comprehensively surveyed, the magnitude and reach of fraud is becoming clear. For example, research suggests that the majority of applications from a number of large student-sending countries are either significantly embellished or outright fraudulent. As a result, tens of thousands of international students, having passed through visa and admissions systems, are enrolled all over the world based on school transcripts, financial support statements, recommendation letters or test scores that are untrue.

In a bid to encourage transparency and stamp out corruption and fraud in universities, India's education ministry is preparing guidelines that will for the first time force private higher education institutions to make their accounts public.

The problems of corruption are immediate; one cannot wait possibly ten to fifteen years before these students finally make their entry into job market. Moreover, what will you do when your very education system is corrupted? Cases of fake certificates are only the tip of the iceberg of corruption happening in the education sector. Nepal's largest budgetary outlay is now made in the education sector.

Students from the University of New England may have their degrees stripped from them if they're found guilty of cheating, and may also lose their Australian residency visa. The university has checked more than 200 master projects and found that a significant proportion of fee-paying foreign students had been involved in plagiarism.