A well-known obesity researcher will plead guilty to making material false statements in a 1999 grant application worth $542,000 from the US National Institutes of Health. The researcher, who held various research positions at the University of Vermont (UVM) College of Medicine in Burlington could go to jail for up to 5 years.

The U.S. Department of Justice may be breathing new life into a whistle-blower lawsuit that seeks to collect about $1billion from the University of Phoenix, the nation's largest private institution of higher education. The suit was dismissed in May by a federal district-court judge in California on technical grounds but the parties appealed.

A federal grand jury in Kansas indicted a former college-basketball coach last month on charges that he arranged for his players to receive phony academic credit and stole $120,000 in Pell Grants. The former coach faces a total of 51 years in prison and over $1.5-million in fines if found guilty of all counts.

Exam boards report a sharp rise in teenagers caught cheating in public exams. More than 2,500 lost marks for breaking the rules in last year's GCSEs and A-levels - a 9% increase on 2003. More than 900 pupils were caught cheating or plagiarising their coursework. In total, 1,013 penalties were triggered by inappropriate use of mobile phones - 16% up on the same time last year.

The Scottish Qualifications Authority will use sophisticated printing measures to combat diploma fraud. Results will be printed on heavy parchment paper containing secret markings known only to the printer and the awards body, making forgery more difficult. The British university admissions service admitted in 2004 that it had stopped 1,000 students from entering programs due to applications with fake qualifications.

Oregon lawmakers have passed a bill requiring those seeking employment in the state to add a disclaimer on their résumé to any qualifications not issued by an institution of higher education accredited by a state recognized accrediting agency. This is part of an on-going struggle by state legislators against institutions of education where academic standards are insufficient or non-existent. The Office of Degree Authorization lists on its Web site more than 300 institutions which is not recognized.

The governor of the northern province of Nampula has ordered an enquiry of financial mismanagement at the city's main secondary school. The governor ordered that the provincial finance department and the education inspectorate produce a report within a week on the use of about 100 million meticais (about 5,000 US dollars) that is allocated monthly for the maintenance of the school. The school is suffering from broken windows and a shortage of furniture in some classrooms, just four years after it had undergone thorough rehabilitation.

The education ministry has failed to take action against teachers and other education officers identified as guilty of misconduct by various investigations and commissions over the years. Affairs between schoolgirls and teachers, and schools misusing equipment given to them to improve the quality of education are among the countless problems that had emerged from investigations.

According to investigations conducted in Nicaragua, among the 3 500 teachers from autonomous colleges who actually collect a salary on a monthly basis, in reality only 1 945 of them are actually teaching. At least 555 individual salaries are therefore paid to fictitious teachers or to individuals falsely (fraudulently) using the names of teachers.

The Nigerian education Minister is accused for having given bribes to parliamentarians so they increase the budget for his ministry. Arrested last Thursday, he was released five days later. The President has asked the Minister to resign. The government of Olusegun Obasanjo, which has promised to fight against corruption, has not yet managed to take away Nigeria's reputation as a corrupt country.