A plagiarism scandal is putting at risk Australia's $2 billion education export industry. In fact, a plagiarism cover-up scandal involving 15 of the students' Malaysian classmates is threatening to damage Newcastle University's international reputation and its lucrative relationship with Asia.

The need to sell more courses to foreign students is placing universities' reputations at risk and education is slowly being privatised. To replace the missing income due to fall in government funds, universities allow private students, particularly from overseas to buy university places. The fees overseas students pay can represent up to two-fifths of the budget of universities.

According to the study, "Fake Universities and Bogus Degrees – Sweden and the World", there has been an increase in the number of job seekers who have been caught trying to pass off fake degrees as genuine, with more than 30 cases reported in the last two years. According to the National Agency for Higher Education, there exists over 800 Web-based fake universities. The study recommends use of a digital database that employers can access to verify an applicant's qualifications, something into which Australia is already looking.

The Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and Universities Australia have launched a revision version of a Code for Responsible Research. The purpose of the Code is to guide institutions and researchers in responsible research practices. It embraces topics such as managing data and materials; publication and dissemination of findings; attribution; peer review processes and conflict of interest.

In 1999, the Australian Federal Education Minister announced the establishment of the Australian Universities Quality Agency, or AUQA. AUQA has to audit universities as well as non-university institutions. There has been some criticism that AUQA "only looks at processes not outcomes" or that it "looks only at the processes intended to achieve quality and not at the quality itself". In 2006, AUQA commissioned an independent review of its activities.

Hundreds of WA University students have been caught cheating in exams and plagiarising course work. During the past three years, 545 students have been picked up for plagiarism at Curtin University, 304 at Murdoch, 270 at the University of WA and 182 at Edith Cowan University.

No es probable que el profesor universitario de Perth descubierto por amenazar a estudiantes chinas con suspenderlas si no mantenían relaciones sexuales con él sea el único académico que explote la vulnerabilidad de estudiantes atrapadas en el negocio de visados-por-títulos, según la Comisión contra el Crimen y Corrupción de Australia Occidental.