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The post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination or post- gives universities a second chance to screen prospective students who have come through the national matriculation examination system. Earlier this year, the Education Minister announced that the government had lifted a ban imposed in June 2016 on the post-UTME. But the Ministerwarned against institutions charging exorbitant fees for the exam and directed the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board or JAMB to compile a list of institutions charging above NGN2,000 (US$5.50), according to a local media report.

Ugandan police have made no arrests among the 88 suspects – some of them alleged to be politicians and business people – implicated in the altering or forging of marks at Makerere University, months after university officials reported the offences. Up to 69 degrees are to be cancelled at Makerere University following the findings of a university audit initiated in September. The audit report, which is not available to the public, has revealed that results were altered at senate level after lecturers and college and school registrars made their submissions.

When a third-year bachelor of arts student at the University of Nairobi, was unable to write her final examination due to illness, her lecturer agreed to let her retake the exam and told her to meet him in his office in the evening to discuss the details. Instead of receiving the information she needed, he informed her that there was no need for her to take the examination and forced her to have sex with him. A 2016 study on sexual harassment among university students at Kenya’s University of Eldoret found that more than 50% of students had encountered sexual harassment and there were no policies to address the issue.

Member of the committee on education and scientific research of the House of Representatives called for installing cameras in all examination halls at Egyptian universities to prevent cheating and lack of discipline. He will send the proposal to the Ministry of Higher Education as cameras will prevent and detect the growing incidents of mass copying by students and reveal any problem that would happen between students and monitors in the exam. This move is part of Egypt’s efforts to enhance the quality of the country’s university education and to deter churning out low quality graduates especially since the country’s examination system has been plagued by cheating over the recent years especially in high schools.

The executive director of National Council for Higher Education (NHCE) noted that a number people including public servants have been rushing to obtain academic certificates without even attending classes. He warned that universities found issuing such certificates risk having their charters and letters of interim authorities withdrawn. He added that the council was keen to ensure the 'fake' degrees' rush stops in efforts to streamline higher education in Uganda. He also expressed concern over cases of university students missing their marks, thus denying them the opportunity to graduate in time.

A higher education qualifications framework aimed, inter alia, at curbing the proliferation of fake certificates will be in place at the start of January 2018. In terms of the new Kenya National Qualifications Framework, a national database of qualifications, publishing codes and guidelines will be maintained; an annual report on the status of qualifications will be produced; and interrelationships and linkages across national qualifications in consultation with stakeholders will be reviewed. The framework will also provide accurate graduate data to prospective employers.

Last month a student at Mount Kenya University, lost a case in the High Court in which she was challenging her suspension from the university over exam cheating. The judge dismissed the suit after he found that the disciplinary process the university followed was a fair administrative action. The student had gone to court to seek redress, arguing that the yardstick used by the university’s disciplinary committee to arrive at its verdict was unfair, excessive and in violation of the Constitution and her right to a fair hearing. So far, cheating in examinations in universities is widespread not just in Kenya but in most parts of the world.

Up to 88 people at Makerere University, one of Africa’s most prestigious universities, have been apprehended for possible prosecution over the alteration of student marks in an investigation that is expected to see the withdrawal of some of the university’s law degrees dating back to 2011. The development comes days after Makerere University announced that it will recall law degrees awarded irregularly to students over the past decade amid claims of forged and altered results.

Massive leaks have discredited the country’s education system. The French, history and geography tests will resume on 10 July. At the Immaculate Conception School of Dakar, a candidate for the baccalaureate was caught by the exam supervisor as he was consulting the answers to the history and geography tests on his laptop. This discovery of cheating at the Immaculate Conception School triggered a tsunami that is now shaking up the entire Senegalese education system.

Lecherous lecturers who demand sex in return for good marks could be named and shamed if students attending the HEAids National Youth Conference Durban conference. The UN representative said that power relations at campuses proved to be a “very big issue”, particularly the role of lecturers and sex for marks. The students attending one of the sessions came up with an “interesting concept” - to identify the offending lecturers on an application “grey list” so that their names would be known.