Revealed: university representatives met with daughter of Chinese prime minister to win donation university officials later claimed had "no link" to Chinese government.

Up to 100,000 students a year now use dozens of shady companies to produce bespoke pieces of work guaranteed to secure high marks.

1,382 students from two British universities have been investigated for cheating since 2010. Most of those cases are of plagiarism. Most plagiarized work came from media and film students, and the Informatics department – which includes computer sciences.

Universities determined to rise up international rankings are increasingly "playing" the methodology, Shaun Curtis of the University of Exeter in the UK told the "Worldviews 2013" conference last week. One way is to seek support from colleagues in other institutions who are answering rankings questionnaires, and another is to game the data.

A former head teacher, who has advised two Prime Ministers, has been arrested over an alleged fraud during his time at the helm of a leading school. The former advisor, who headed education advisory groups for both Gordon Brown and David Cameron, was and questioned following a tip off from a member of the public for fraudulent activities between 2009 and 2013.

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.