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Cheating among students has reached unprecedented levels worldwide from academic misconduct among Britain's Russell Group universities from 2014 to 2017; ongoing cheating among student-athletes to enter or to stay at universities in the United States; unauthorized exam assignment sharing in Switzerland; contract cheating in Australia to plagiarism in many Eastern European countries. If universities just declare their integrity but do not practice it, they might not be able to expect it from students.

The recent steps taken by the UK government to end the use of essay mills by its students is a blow to thousands of Kenyan students and university graduates who rely on academic contract writing as their main source of income. An integrity expert tells in his blog that the participants think of their jobs as providing a service of value, not as helping people to cheat. They see themselves as working as academic writers but this practice is considered unethical and there are concerns it will have damaging effects on the quality of higher education.

According to a report published by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation and the International Quality Group, corruption in higher education vary between countries but it highlights unethical, inappropriate, and illegal practices. Some examples include university leaders and professors with fake or undeserved doctoral degrees impacting on the governance of some Russian universities, ‘ghost advising’ or absenteeism by senior academics, delegating their responsibilities for teaching or supervision to junior colleagues or research students, is widespread in Kosovo, or students and teachers sexually harassing, threatening or harming academic teaching staff in Uganda.

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) arrested a third-year medical student and another undergraduate for attempting to write the ongoing Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) for candidates. According to the board’s Head of Media and Information, a medical student was caught at the Rainbow Digital Tech centre, one of the centres for the examination in Kano, trying to impersonate by trying to sit for the examination for a candidate.

The video concerns cases of "contract cheating" in Toronto, Canada. In an investigative report, a reporter from 680 News speaks with a Kenyan man who claims to have written hundreds of essays for Toronto students. 

Corruption is part of the daily life of Tanzanians. Teachers accept bribes for letting their students pass their exams and even for enrolling children in school. Moreover, they pay bribes to get a promotion or to be transferred to a more comfortable place. The “United for Our Rights” project implemented by the European Union and two Tanzanian non-governmental organizations aims to empower citizens to better understand their rights and how to address corruptions and governance issues.