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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.

Up to 1000 students at the University of Sydney are in limbo after their final exam was abruptly cancelled on Friday morning due to fears the exam had been compromised. Commerce students sitting their final exam for the compulsory business insights unit had just begun reading the exam paper when they were interrupted by an announcement from the examiner. The university said the replacement exam would have the same structure and weighting as the original exam, and warned "any student found guilty of misconduct risks disciplinary proceedings including expulsion".

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.

A growing number of students are being suspended from Swedish universities because they have been caught cheating.In its review of 33 universities in Sweden, TT newswire found 733 students had been suspended due to cheating in 2016. A recurring question, which is difficult to answer, is whether a high number of suspensions is due to extensive cheating, or the result of a persistent hunt for cheaters. According to the same logic, it is difficult to know if few suspensions means a university has few cheaters, or if it is simply bad at catching them.

The entrance exam at Rangsit University has been canceled after students were caught using wireless spy cameras in eyeglasses to capture exam questions and receive responses through linked smartwatches. Similar devices like Cheating Watch can store PDF, Word, and other documents or Invisible Watch displays nothing but cheat notes become visible when viewed with special glasses. In an attempt to eliminate the problem of differentiating between watches during examinations, some Australian universities have implemented bans on all wristwatches.

Greater university autonomy, credible appointments to governing councils, integrity tests for prospective vice-chancellors, and a holistic overhaul to stem systemic decay topped the list of recommendations contained in a strongly-worded statement released at the close of the recent third biennial conference of the Committee of Pro-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities. The meeting, held in Abuja, aimed to deliberate on the current difficulties confronting the universities and their role in a 21st century driven by knowledge and digitalised economies.

Taiwan’s Ministry of Science and Technology has said it will set up an Office of Research Integrity to hold researchers to ethical academic standards in the wake of a major academic fraud scandal at the country’s top institution, National Taiwan University or NTU, which has severely damaged its research reputation. The office will create a database of different types of breaches of academic standards, including fraud and plagiarism. Taiwan’s Ministry of Education also announced an amendment to its regulations, forcing academics accused of academic fraud to relinquish honorary and monetary awards granted by the ministry, and return funds already granted.

The ministry of higher education and scientific research has sent a written notice to all university presidents, criticising them for non-compliance with a July 2016 ministerial decree which criminalised plagiarism, and urging them to deal with all irregularities in accordance with the rules. The instruction raises the possibility of past abuses which may have been overlooked by vice-chancellors, including the inappropriate appointment of individuals to examinations and theses adjudication boards. The letter constitutes an unprecedented move against a scourge that academics suggest is becoming “common practice” in universities.

Several Egyptian universities have changed their examination systems in an attempt to curb mass cheating. Academic institutions in the country have in recent years complained about widespread cheating, blaming it on a test system based on rote learning and the large numbers of students admitted into universities each year. In a bid to improve the situation, higher education authorities have recently announced the replacement of the traditional exam system with another based on multiple-choice questions.