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In Mexico, the embezzlement of over 8 billion pesos has been uncovered. This case involves collusion between federal agencies and public universities. This corruption case was documented thanks to an NGO report. The video highlights the lack of media attention and the resulting lack of citizen awareness on the matter.

The video details a corruption case in Mexican universities that has been investigated by a local NGO in Mexico. The case reveals a embezzlement schemes operated by the federal government in collaboration with the public universities, Resources are diverted to illegal front companies, resulting in a fraud amounting to 7 million pesos. 

The friend of South Korea’s former president who was impeached in March, was last week sentenced to three years in prison for soliciting university favours for her daughter. The Seoul Central District Court on Friday found her guilty of ‘obstruction of duty’ by exerting influence on Ewha Womans University to give undue favours to her 21-year-old daughter, using her ties with the former president. The president’s friend pleaded not guilty to the indictment, arguing that she never asked for special treatment for her daughter.

A school operator that runs the Okayama University of Science, owned by a close friend of the prime minister, has been linked to the zero-cost acquisition of city-owned property. The Prime Minister's office may have been involved, leaked documents show. The school was planning to open a veterinary department in Imabari in western Japan. A recently disclosed document claimed the Prime Minister was supporting the school "at the highest level," although the department had not received government approval to build in 52 years.

In Latin America, one high-level scandal after another has tainted current or recent presidents or vice-presidents across the region. The price is awful public services, from transport and education to law enforcement and health care, as state coffers are ransacked while appointments and contracts are awarded as favors rather than on merit. Yet, counter-intuitively, the steady stream of grim headlines about kickbacks, influence-peddling and nepotism may actually be good news. Many experts regard the public revelations as a sign that corruption in the region is actually being tolerated less and less.

South Korea’s prestigious Ewha Womans University in Seoul – under the spotlight of investigations into a corruption scandal that led to the impeachment of the country’s former president faces renewed scrutiny. State prosecutors are seeking a seven-year jail term for the former president’s close friend for facilitating her daughter’s admission to the university and for having her high school academic grades altered. The daughter was last week extradited from Denmark to South Korea to face questioning related to her preferential admission as well as bribery allegations involving technology giant Samsung.

Universities in the United States should close down their Confucius Institutes – teaching and research centres funded directly by the Chinese government – says a report by the National Association of Scholars or NAS. The wide-ranging report includes additional insights on the institutes’ often-secretive operations gleaned from the contracts signed with a dozen US universities, obtained through freedom of information law requests. The report, Outsourced to China: Confucius Institutes and soft power in American higher education, says unless contracts between US universities and the Hanban can be renegotiated to include more transparency, financial and hiring autonomy for US host universities, academic freedom guarantees and other safeguards, the institutes should be shut down.

A scandal over former high-level government officials being given jobs at universities after lobbying on their behalf by the education ministry has cause a public furore in Japan over recent weeks. The administrative vice-minister of education has already been forced to resign and seven other officials from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology face disciplinary action. A government investigation has been launched to investigate dozens of officials in the ministry, which is expected to report back at the end of this month.