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As Liberia enters its second decade of peace, its music industry continues to gain popularity. The Accountability Lab, an OSIWA partner, has been working with hip co (a Liberian urban music genre) musicians in Liberia to promote integrity and combat corruption. A recent performance at the University of Liberia (UL) highlighted the challenges faced by Liberian students in order to register for classes.

The recent rise of East Asian universities has greatly impressed the academic world. However, a number of terms have been used to describe the academic culture in East Asian universities, such as integrity, ethics, misconduct and even corruption. Academic culture has been cited as a significant impediment for East Asian higher education to reach a leading status in the world. The toxic academic culture is another expression of East Asia’s greatest challenge: universities have not yet figured out how to combine the 'standard norms' of Western higher education with traditional values.

Academic fraud such as bribery, bogus universities and falsified research findings is hardly a new phenomenon but it seems to be escalating worldwide, prompting quality assurance professionals meeting last week in Washington, DC to grapple with how, if at all, they can help combat the problem. No consensus was reached, but a prevailing view emerged that the potential consequences, if left unchecked, are dire.

Amid allegations of massive cheating in university exams and the existence of rogue colleges and universities, the Commission for University Education has been criticised for not having ‘bite’ in regulating the higher education sector. But this month the commission rose from the shadows, ordering 10 university campuses to close in what could be a turning point in salvaging the country’s higher education system. Now the regulator has closed 10 out of 13 campuses of Kisii University, one of Kenya’s fastest growing public universities, potentially threatening the institution’s existence.

As a record number of Chinese students stream into American universities, verification companies have sprouted up to help combat doctored transcripts, falsified essays, and surrogate test-takers. They vie against another set of Chinese companies, which turn out false applications and seek to profit off the frenzy for a US degree. Verification companies such as InitialView test College-bound Chinese students by filming a video interview to prove their speaking abilities match their applications.

The United States firm that owns the SAT, a college entrance exam accepted by many US colleges and universities, cancelled plans to administer the test this weekend at centres in China and Macau following concerns that some students may have obtained information about questions in advance. Tests scheduled to be administered Saturday in Bahrain and Kazakhstan also were cancelled. Students in Hong Kong sat for the test Saturday as scheduled.

The Chairman of Executive Trainers Limited (ETL), and an expert in higher education-related issues, has called on the Federal Government to take its anti-corruption campaign to campuses of the institution of higher learning in the country. At a media briefing in Lagos, he expressed serious concerns at the level of decay in the nation's tertiary institutions, stressing that as facilities where future Nigerian leaders were trained, there was need for sanity in the sector.

The Chairman of Executive Trainers Limited, has thrown his weight behind the President’s war on corruption in tertiary institutions, stating that it is the right step in the right direction. The Chairman, who is responsible in the past seven year for the training of Chancellors, Vice Chancellors, Provosts, Rectors and other top executives in Nigerian tertiary institutions, disclosed that whatever area the government needs his support to sanitise the system will be rendered.