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The quality of education in Pakistan is extremely poor by world standards. Children study the same books as their parents did, or probably their grandparents. In Sindh, students who don't sit exams end up passing them. In Lahore, at the main examination centres located next to the board office, bribing and cheating are common practices. Professors are absent from classes and concentrate on maintaining their relations with influential individuals. Examination staff close the examination rooms to those who refuse to abide by the routine.

At a webinar organized by the University of Nairobi, a professor of curriculum and instruction at Texas Tech University challenged university faculty members to adopt innovative online assessment techniques that limit student cheating and implement academic integrity policies. Cheating can be limited by disabling certain functions, such as copy and paste, and by using software to prohibit access to certain applications, such as email, or to disable screen sharing. Systems whereby teachers are alerted when students attempt to cheat, and authentication can also help curb risks.

Fake Degrees and Fraudulent Credentials in Higher Education brings together contributions from authors in different fields and parts of the world, offering an overview of various aspects of academic fraud and highlighting the erosion of trust in academia and academics that systematically accompanies such cases. In the first chapter of the book on contract cheating and paper mills, we learn that the worldwide fake degree industry has grown from US$1 billion in 2015 to US$22 billion in 2022. Experts estimate that 4.7 billion people hold or have held fake diplomas.

Four students at the University of Virginia have been caught cheating using Artificial Intelligence language tools like ChatGPT to complete their essays. When enrolling, all students pledge to follow an honour code and given that this was the first wave of such cheating, the University made this moment work toward the goal of learning. The students confessed to using such systems and agreed to rewrite the assignments themselves.

20 Massey University students allegedly caught using ChatGPT to cheat have claimed amnesty in exchange for their confessions. The teaching team offered an amnesty deadline and those who resubmitted their work would receive a maximum mark of 50%. For those who didn’t, a confirmed breach can result in a mark of zero for the assessment or a failure for the whole course.

According to a survey conducted by Education Sub-Saharan Africa (ESSA), most universities in East Africa struggled to uphold the integrity of examinations that were administered online during the COVID-19 pandemic. The lead investigator at ESSA reports that students used materials prohibited during the examinations or breached university examination policies. Uganda and Kenya had the highest number of universities that struggled, at 31% and 27%, respectively.

According to the Kenya National Qualifications Authority (KNQA), at least one out of every three people employed in Kenya has a fake academic certificate, i.e. About 30 per cent (at least 250,000) of the civil service workforce. In March 2023, the Kenya Medical Training College revoked the admission of 53 medical trainees after it was discovered that they had joined the institution using fake secondary school certificates. The Public Service Commission and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission then ordered all public and private employers to conduct audits of employees' academic qualifications over the past ten years to ensure their accountability.

The Ethiopian Ministry of Education is considering the digitalisation of school-leaving and university exit exams to counter corruption and cheating in the sector. But a national strategy is necessary to address challenges associated with a digital exam, such as the availability of infrastructure and IT facilities as well as security needs.

The Justice Department has unsealed conspiracy and wire fraud charges against 25 people in the $114 million sale of 7,600 fake diplomas from three now-defunct South Florida nursing schools. According to an FBI agent, the investigation into the nursing certificates began in 2019. The certificates allowed untrained individuals to sit for national nursing board exams and at least 2,800 of them passed.

Under the new measures approved on academic integrity for all its candidates, all Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members standing for election will have to list their degrees and sign an academic ethics statement declaring that they did not engage in plagiarism, falsification or ghostwriting when writing their theses. This follows the revoke of various doctoral degrees of DPP members for plagiarism allegations.