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A row over whether or not the president of the Community of Madrid used her influence to obtain a masters degree has led to 30 university professors from across Spain signing a petition to denounce ongoing ‘academic corruption’ in Spanish educational institutions. The professors say the case against the Partido Popular (PP, a conservative party) president of Madrid’s Autonomous Community, is “a scandal without precedent” and argue that “the future of the public university and science in Spain will be determined by how this crisis is resolved”.

A Madrid university has suspended an official over a fake degree scandal. The King Juan Carlos University suspended the director of the school's Public Law Institute. The department allegedly awarded master's degrees to two Popular Party (PP) politicians without them completing the work. However the former said last week the university had pressured him to lie about the qualifications. The university's president denies pressuring the director. He also announced on Friday an internal probe into all the university's departments.

Contributors offer their thoughts on the universities watchdog calling for a crackdown on essay plagiarism sites. They offer various solutions to this increasingly common issue, including making the offer of such services illegal, reducing the number of assessment tasks students are required to complete, putting the focus on classroom exams rather than essays, and enabling teachers to have a more accurate knowledge of student’s capabilities so that they are able to spot work that is not of that student’s usual standard.

The rector of Naples Suor Orsola Benincasa university is under investigation for allegedly helping the son of a former minister get a research position at the institute. The news came two days after seven university teachers were arrested by Florence finance police in relation to a probe into the alleged rigging of exams to qualify as lecturers. Another 22 people have been barred from holding academic positions for 12 months in relation to the probe and 59 people are under investigation in total. The probe was triggered by an alleged attempt by some teachers to persuade a researcher who was a candidate in an exam to qualify as a tax-law teacher to withdraw the bid in favour of a less qualified candidate.

A professor in political economy at the world’s oldest university has more or less invited his students to copy. It is his way of speaking out against the impunity of certain of his colleagues accused of plagiarism. He announced “I will not be checking to see if you have copied your work as I cannot, in good conscience, ask you to respect rules that the University of Bologna allows it’s professors to violate.”