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A major Chinese education company has paid thousands of dollars in perks or cash to admissions officers at top U.S. universities to help students apply to American schools. According to eight former employees the company’s services didn’t end there. Employees engaged in practices such as writing application essays for students, altering recommendation letters and modifying grades on high school transcripts. The company’s success in gaining access to leading American colleges underscores how people on both sides of the Pacific are hungry to capitalize on Chinese students’ desire to study in the United States.

Twenty-one people have been arrested after US authorities set up a fake university to expose immigration fraud. Officials said the accused knew that the University of Northern New Jersey did not exist, but they were unaware it was a ruse run by immigration agents. The defendants acted as brokers for more than 1,000 foreigners who sought to maintain student and work visas, prosecutors said. Most foreign nationals involved in the scheme came from China and India.

The agent debate is dead. Long live the integrity debate. For some time now, the discussion about whether American colleges could use commission-based agents when recruiting students abroad has been the hottest of hot-button issues in international admissions, with each camp staking out fiercely partisan positions.

Alberta's auditor-general says Medicine Hat College's international education division has been an out-of-control programme that has put the college at "reputational, legal and financial risk". The Auditor-Generals report released last Tuesday shows a record of irregular contracts, questionable expenses and dubious academic standards for the C$1.7-million programme, which focuses on attracting foreign students from multiple countries, and works in partnership with three Chinese institutions, to offer courses overseas for Chinese students who can then transfer to Medicine Hat College.

Although Chinese students have been going to America to study for decades, their numbers have grown dramatically in the past few years. Many of them have only a basic knowledge of foreign universities and difficulty making sense of complicated applications. As a result, a huge industry of education agents has arisen in the country to help guide them — and, in some cases, to do whatever it takes to ensure that they are accepted.

A scandal involving 49 students who sought places in an Egypt's prestigious university has been revealed. Instead of enrolling in the promised university, the students ended up in Malaysia where 15 were discovered doing odd jobs to support themselves. Moreover in what may be a bureaucratic cross-proposes the Indonesia's Ministry of national education is not in charge of verifying the student's process because is the Ministry of religious affaires the one responsible for students who apply to Islamic Universities abroad.

Le Conseil interuniversitaire de l'Afrique de l'Est (IUCEA) est sur le point de développer un système destiné à normaliser les diplômes proposés par les universités locales. Selon le secrétaire de direction du Conseil, la plupart des Kényans souhaitent intégrer une université en Ouganda du fait de coûts d'inscription inférieurs à ceux de leurs universités locales. Cependant, ils ne s'assurent pas de la conformité de la qualité de l'enseignement dispensé par les universités ougandaises aux normes en vigueur.