Many of the UK’s leading universities are refusing to spell out just how they are spending their students’ £9,000 (US$13,600) a year tuition fees. The influential think-tank, the Higher Education Policy Institute, invited a range of institutions to explain how they were spending the money - but the majority, including almost all the of the country’s most select universities, declined to reply.

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

Few people enter the teaching profession for the money. Teachers repeatedly describe it as "a vocation", widely recognized as a euphemism for poorly paid. But for a few enterprising teachers, the education system is rife with opportunities for personal financial gain. A report on corruption in education, published this week by UNESCO highlights ways in which heads, teachers and education officials can extort and embezzle school funds.