The acting Rector COMSATS Institute of Technology (CIIT) has been allegedly found involved in a plagiarized research work in which he was a co-author and published the paper in a national research journal in 2007. 65% text of the said research paper has been found similar with a number of other papers after its verification in the Higher Education Commission’s (HEC) plagiarism detecting software ‘Turnitin’. As per HEC policy no research publication for PhD work should have above 19% similar index in overall, and 4% from a single source, an official said.

A Singaporean tutor has admitted to helping six Chinese students cheat in their 2016 exams in what prosecutors say was an elaborate plot. The tutor took the exams as a private candidate and FaceTimed questions to accomplices who then rang students and read answers to them, prosecutors say. The students snuck in mobile phones and Bluetooth devices and wore earphones during their exams. The plot was uncovered after an invigilator noticed unusual sounds coming from one of the students involved, prosecutors said.

India’s tough new anti-plagiarism law drawn up by the higher education regulatory body, the University Grants Commission or UGC, which sets out graded punishments depending on the seriousness of the misdemeanour, has been widely welcomed by academics – but many said there needs to be even stronger deterrence to curb copycat tendencies among students and lecturers. The UGC announced the Promotion of Academic Integrity and Prevention of Plagiarism in Higher Education Institutions Regulations 2018 late last month.

The president-to-be of Taiwan’s top higher education institution had been due to take up his post on 1 February after his selection to the top university position by a university committee in January. However, his taking of office has been delayed after it was revealed in January that he was an independent director of the board of a private company, and that the company’s vice chairman sat on the university selection committee. He has also been subjected to plagiarism allegations relating to a paper he presented at a conference in May 2017, but the university said in late January it would not formally investigate the claims.

Three men, including a Delhi University graduate, were arrested for allegedly running a pan-India fake degree racket under which they sold about 50,000 forged certificates of universities and school boards, police said today. The accused, during interrogation, revealed that they had sold at least 50,000 fake degrees and marksheets of various universities and school boards. In order to convince their clients, they had also set up fake websites of the universities and school boards on which the victims verified the authenticity of these documents. The websites were so convincing that victims could not tell the difference between genuine and fake, the senior police official said.

Some 82 cases of professors listing their secondary school offspring as co-authors in academic papers have been unearthed by an investigation by South Korea’s ministry of education. According to a Korea Herald Editorial, “It is obvious why the professors included the names of their children in the papers. The merit of being co-authors of research papers gives them a good advantage in seeking to enter universities through special admissions programmes”. The discovery could lead to disciplinary action in some cases, under Korea’s strict research misconduct laws which cover author attribution of research papers.

Thousands of UK nationals have bought fake degrees from a multi-million pound "diploma mill" in Pakistan, a BBC Radio 4's File on Four programme investigation has found. Buyers include NHS consultants, nurses and a large defence contractor. One British buyer spent almost £500,000 on bogus documents. The Department for Education said it was taking "decisive action to crack down on degree fraud" that "cheats genuine learners

The Higher Education Commission (HEC) will meet next week to decide the fate of its second most important officer whose research paper was found to be 88 percent plagiarized. The Chairman had set up a committee to probe the allegations of plagiarism against the commission’s Executive Director (ED). Sources said after the issue came to the light through a news story published in this paper, the committee formed by the HEC Chairman held a meeting this week to review the Executive Director’s research paper which was found plagiarized.