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Ukraine has little to offer international students. The quality of education offered is low, there is endless red tape and corruption is rife. Over the past quarter century, the quality of education offered has dropped dramatically due not only to a lack of state funding and a consequent brain drain, but primarily to rampant endemic corruption. Failed structural reforms and institutional incapacity in higher education have left Ukrainian youth without any hope of receiving world-class education and have had a negative impact on international students as well.

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.

Thousands of students have signed up to 'unlawful' contracts that allow universities to increase tuition fees arbitrarily or discontinue their course, an investigation has alleged. University students can have their fees increased or their degree course altered on a whim as a result of unfair contract terms. A consumer lobby group said one in five universities were using unlawful contract terms to give them unlimited power to change courses once students have enrolled.

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.

Tuition for university studies has been growing steadily in Romania in the last few years, according to the National Alliance of Student Organizations in Romania (ANOSR). Many of the taxes paid by students at 21 universities in the country are "unjustified, borderline illegal or simply illegal".

The Hauts-de-France Regional Council has set up the Participatory Budget for Upper Secondary Schools (BPL) to improve living and studying conditions for students in their schools. This project is part of a participatory democracy approach, in which it is the pupils themselves who are involved in the equipment and renovation projects for their lycée. 

According to the President of a University in Perpignan in the department of the Pyrénées-Orientales which has the third highest rate of unemployment in France: "These bogus students have always existed but in the past three years, they are on the increase, partly due to youth unemployment and a lack of financial support for the transition period between school and work ...".

A third of French universities are "illegally" charging students for services that should be covered by statutory fees, claims Unef, France's biggest student union.