A new system of performance-related pay in schools risks fuelling a rise in fraud as teachers attempt to falsify pupils' results to win salary rises. Teachers could be tempted to "over-egg" children's work to prove they are doing a good job and the proposals could also lead to major employment disputes within schools if teachers who fail to receive higher pay lodge official discrimination claims.

Comments linked with an announcement on a new "bogus students" crackdown has threatened the country's multi-billion university sector, according to a group that represents British universities. They suggested that overseas students were no longer welcome in Britain and were instead choosing to study in North America and Australia.

Tens of thousands of students in universities across Britain have been caught cheating in exams and coursework – and the trend is on the rise, according to an investigation by The Independent. Over the past three years, more than 45,000 students at 80 institutions have been found guilty of "academic misconduct".

A journalist from the Mail and Guardian reveals the growing trend of fake degrees, provided by Ashford University and Belford University, which offer life experience qualifications on a fee-only basis, without the need for training or study. These documents are available on the Internet and are being included on resumes at all levels of the employment sector.

The University of Wales will cease to exist after mounting a series of damaging revelations. An investigation revealed last week that overseas students at Rayat London College, in Hounslow, were sold diploma exam answers in advance of taking the test.

The Immigration Minister admitted yesterday there may be widespread abuses of a visa scheme that provides foreign students with the chance to enrol at UK institutions after irregularities were found at a Scottish university.

There have been calls for Welsh universities to be more consistent in dealing with students who plagiarise. New figures show between 2008 and 2011, 927 students from six Welsh universities copied work.

Foreign students are attempting to bluff their way into British universities by parroting education websites in their applications, research suggests.

A university has excluded 50 foreign students it believes used forged certificates to enhance their applications. It said it regretted having to exclude the students because many of them appeared to be victims of bogus "agents", based either in China or Britain (49 students came from China and one from Taiwan), who were paid to submit applications, including supporting documents, on their behalf. The forgeries, mainly certificates for English language qualifications or degrees awarded by other universities, are of such high quality that they could not have been detected by the usual checks carried out by admissions officers. The university is introducing a number of changes to its admissions procedures, one of which will be to draw up and publish on its website a list of approved agents.

A leaked e-mail from Manchester Metropolitan University shows how university staff are being urged to increase the number of top degree grades to keep pace with competing universities. The leaking of the e-mail provides further evidence of the concern among academics over the pressure to manipulate degree awards to improve the public image of universities and to make them more attractive to applicants. The number of students achieving a first class degree at UK universities has more than doubled since the mid-1990s.