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16 pilots and 65 crew members of the national airline have been suspended by the Pakistan authorities for possessing fake degrees. On 29 December, a chairman of the Senate Committee, strongly opposed the pilots and cabin crew’s dismissal and suggested that the salaries of the culprits be reduced instead of firing them. The issue of who is responsible has become politicized. It seems that many pilots and cabin crews with fake academic degrees obtained their degrees through political connections. The fake degrees issue has been in the limelight in the country since 2010, as many parliamentarians faked their academic qualifications to be eligible to contest elections when a new rule made it compulsory for candidates to possess a bachelor degree.

After reports of corruption in the process of recruitments to its universities, the Higher Education Department plans to hand over tasks of screening candidates and issuing appointment orders to the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA). According to an official, “one university had given a written exam in a sheet of paper that was handwritten and with nonsensical questions’’.

The students of Information Technology, Arts and English departments boycotted the classes against non-provision of facilities and denounced abuse of powers. They alleged that the university administration was involved in embezzling funds allocated for the student facilities. They appealed to Sindh Governor, National Accountability Bureau chief Justice, and Sindh Chief Minister to take notice of the issue and help them for the provision of required facilities.

Most Vietnamese parents and students work with education agents when applying to the US and other foreign colleges and universities. The challenge for families is that these education agents charge exorbitant fees and misrepresent partner schools. They convince their clients of the need to ‘enhance’ an application using fraudulent documents, such as altered or fake transcripts and adviser-written statements of purpose.

Many Indian students fall prey to unscrupulous middlemen and end up being admitted to fake or sub-standard universities after spending substantial amounts of money. In order to help students authenticate courses and institutions in America and prevent fraud, the United States Embassy in India is launching a specially designed app. The US app developed as a pilot project in partnership with an Indian visa and immigration consultancy firm will provide guidance from trained advisories and information on scholarships.

The Hunan University of Technology in central China introduced a new free tool to limit plagiarism on campuses. Students could check their final dissertation with an online database to see how much of each paper’s content is copied from existing publications. A former director of the People’s Liberation Army’s Institute for Disease Control and Prevention plagiarised the work of another Ph.D. student in his final thesis. He was stripped of his doctorate after being found guilty of cheating 12 years after receiving.

Sindh Anti-Corruption Establishment has found corruption and misuse of authority in Sindh Education Department district Jacobabad involving illegal inducting of hundreds of fake teachers, getting illegal financial benefits in the name of fake employees’ retirement, pension and death claims from department and life insurance company. The investigation continues after the fraud of millions of rupees has been reported, as well as the illegal role and abuse of authority from officers of the Education and Finance Departments.

The number of students disciplined for academic misconduct at the University of Auckland rose to 195 last year, from 187 the year before. Cheating incidents reported have highlighted concerns about the reuse of assignments and the fact that ghostwriters undermine school integrity. According to the Tertiary Education Union president, university bosses should support teaching staff to implement the best anti-cheating measures such as changing assignments frequently and requiring students to submit their work through detection service Turnitin.

Unethical practices leading to ‘pay and publish trash’ culture is a growing problem in India. One of the research papers authored by two of the university’s professors and a research scholar was retracted due to concerns about the validity of results. According to the University Grants Commission (UGC), the percentage of research articles published in predatory journals is high. So, in order to “identify, continuously monitor and maintain UGC-CARE Reference List of Quality Journals across disciplines” a Consortium of Academic and Research Ethics was launched.

The standard bribe demanded by officials for a teacher transfer in India is around Rs 1-2 lakh. Nevertheless, the government has developed a transparent online transfer policy for schoolteachers. A smartphone or computer, internet access and the teachers’ answers to around 10 queries will now decide the fate of teachers’ transfer requests. This new system is also designed to address the problem of job dissatisfaction and teacher absenteeism.