Search Page

OECD has, since 1997, been engaged in the fight against corruption among foreign public servants in international transactions. As such, the institution organized last November a conference on the promotion of integrity in the public market. One suggestion is to establish a "Black list" over companies that are or have been involved in corruption.

The ministry of Higher education and research entrusted to the national Centre of scientific research (CNRS) a mission on scientific integrity. Scientific fraud is varied: biased manufacturing or forgery of results, biased interpretation or selection of data, alteration of curves or images, plagiarism, theft of ideas, financial profit-sharing's ... The increasing pressure which practices on the researchers (among which the career and the credits depend strictly on the quantity of articles and on produced results) tend to multiply the fraudulent practices.

An academic integrity framework will be introduced by the Higher Education Ministry to strengthen the integrity of academics, particularly lecturers, reports the national news agency Bernama.

As Pakistan's Election Commission began its first hearings into parliamentarians' fake degrees last week some feared the scandal had been pushed out of the limelight by the devastating floods. Nonetheless, the degree debacle is straining the credibility of the country's higher education and election systems.

The National Council for Teacher Education has drafted a professional code for school teachers that aims to restore "dignity and integrity" to the vocation of teaching. Everyone would agree that the vocation needs more respect than it receives now, but enforcing ethics must come after and not before dealing with the many and deep-rooted ills that plague school education in the country.

Controversy over plagiarism in the PhD thesis of the director of Thailand's National Innovation Agency, or NIA, has highlighted concerns over academic integrity and a widespread culture of plagiarism. Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University revoked the PhD – for the first time in the institution's history.

The University of Düsseldorf has withdrawn the doctoral title of Germany's Minister of Education and Research, claiming that she lifted material for her thesis. While the Minister is seeking to contest the university's verdict, the opposition in parliament has called for her resignation. A Bonn academic and law expert has claimed that the case may have damaged higher education as a whole in Germany.

The Ministry of Education has launched a new curricula for both primary and secondary schools in Iraq. The aim is to raise awareness and understanding of the concepts of integrity, transparency, human rights and honesty. The new curricula was designed by the Ministry of Education, in collaboration with the UNDP. This innovative initiative is the first of its kind to be introduced in Iraq.

The acting Chairperson of the Liberia Anti-Corruption Commission (LACC) has called for increased budgetary allotment to the education sector to adequately prepare Liberian youths for future challenges. According to the Chairperson, the assessment report in the education sector indicates that lack of integrity on the part of students and teachers was "extremely high" due to the low budgetary allotment to the sector.

Members of the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity discussed their latest set of proposals to overhaul the accreditation process and the way the committee assesses the accreditors. Soon after, the US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions released a somewhat similar set of proposals in a white paper written by committee staff members.