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The committee set up in March last year by the Education Minister to investigate racism and sexism in higher education has revealed that discrimination was pervasive despite all the good policies generated by the institutions. The committee believes that the racism persists in higher education mostly because of the weakness of the institutions' information dissemination: it recommended the creation of a transformation compact which will help to oversight the institutions to sensitize staff to the different needs of students from various cultural and economic backgrounds.

The economic and financial crimes commission and the police have begun the prosecution of proprietors of three illegal private universities operating in the country. The proprietors of the institutions are being prosecuted for operating illegally and for collecting money illegally from innocent students.

Last year, the ombudsman for Andalusia received 150 complaints over the enrolment process, according to the 2008 report just published. This is why he favours harsher penalties for fraudulent applications as there are no clear-cut punitive measures that set an example. However, the province's education ministry maintains that punishment is not the best response, so no sanctions will be taken.

Last year, the ombudsman for Andalusia received 150 complaints over the enrolment process, according to the 2008 report just published. This is why he favours harsher penalties for fraudulent applications as there are no clear-cut punitive measures that set an example. However, the province's education ministry maintains that punishment is not the best response, so no sanctions will be taken.

The Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) says corruption in the education sector is still rampant and that the government must take action to stop the practices.The watchdog's coordinator for public services monitoring Ade Irawan told a press conference here Wednesday that corruption was commonplace throughout the republic's education institutions.

Academics and students around the world at this very second are being subjected to infringements of their professional and human rights, and most of these violations are going unnoticed. Violations of this kind are not limited to countries with poor human rights records. On the contrary, in the post 9/11 world even the most transparent democracies are showing signs that are a cause for concern. Many institutions and academics in the West are subject to an increasingly sophisticated infrastructure of surveillance, intervention and control.

People in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda have been found buying fake degrees of all sorts from diploma mills and other bogus universities. Those universities have no physical existence and operate only through websites. Most diploma mills are operating from Britain or United States where academic standards are presumed to be very high. Recently, the Federal Bureau of Investigations compiled a list of over 10,000 persons who obtained fake degrees from diploma mills in USA. A significant number of them are from South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria. Currently, there are about 80 notorious diploma mills that operate from the United States and the UK.

Transparency International's 2008 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) highlights the fatal link between poverty, failed institutions and graft. But other notable backsliders in the 2008 CPI indicate that the strength of oversight mechanisms is also at risk among the wealthiest. In low-income countries, rampant corruption jeopardizes the global fight against poverty, threatening to derail the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). According to TI's 2008 Global Corruption Report, unchecked levels of corruption would add US $50 billion (€35 billion) - or nearly half of annual global aid outlays – to the cost of achieving the MDG on water and sanitation.

Last week, the National Universities Commission (NUC) announced the existence of 33 illegal universities in the country. In May, the NUC had earlier declared that sixteen out of these institutions were illegal and warned Nigerians against patronizing them. Also declared illegal were unlicensed satellite campuses, outreach campuses and study centers countrywide. The universities' regulatory body also stated that it had not approved any offshore universities to operate in the country. The Commission said that five owners of such institutions had been arrested and were being prosecuted to dissuade others.