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Some language schools are being used to sell false papers, enabling immigrants to obtain student visas. Some are paying up to £600 for fake documents which they use in visa applications to extend their stay. More than half of 83 language colleges recently inspected could be shut down. Up to 50,000 students could be using such scams to stay illegally.

The idea of creating an Anti-corruption academy comes from a civil association named GERB. The academy would apply international experience and attract foreign experts to deliver lectures. Tightening the fight against corruption practices, particularly on high echelons, has been among the key critiques of the European Commission to Bulgaria.

One-third of students admit to cheating at university by copying ideas from books or the internet according to a survey. Based on 1,022 undergraduates at 119 universities and colleges, the study found that one in six students admitted they copied work from friends while 10% said they looked for essays online. Male students were more likely to copy work from their friends (21%) than female students (14%), the study revealed.

Plagiarism could threaten the value of a degree from Oxford University as students increasingly copy large slabs of work from the internet and submit it as their own, the university warns. Many of the plagiarism cases that were referred to the proctor's office involved international students whose first language was not English.

According to Izvestiya Nauki, a corruption-monitoring team at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, university teachers took roughly $923 million in 2004. Some estimates indicate that corruption in universities is rising by 7-10 percent annually. The Highest School of Economics believes one out of ten university lecturers take bribes, and 20% of future students and their parents would be prepared to offer a bribe.