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An ITV documentary has investigated whether some schools are taking duplicitous measures to achieve top marks. The problem is said to have developed after league tables based on exam results were introduced in 1992, putting more pressure on schools to perform well. Schools can obtain more financial rewards if they feature highly in league tables, while the jobs of heads and teachers are at risk if a bad Ofsted inspection means the school goes into special measures.

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.

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.

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".

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.

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.

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.

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.