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Some universities in Asia described the artificial intelligence writing tools ChatGPT as the use of “unfair means” while others consider it as a temporary measure until proper policies for their use can be worked out. Unless a student has the course instructor’s written permission, the use of ChatGPT will be regarded as using other people’s work and will be treated in the same way as plagiarism. Teachers can set supplementary oral or written exams or adopt other measures if they suspect ChatGPT or another AI-based tool has been used.

Questions about using artificial intelligence go further than cheating on exams or generating text for scientific articles. They concern academic values the integrity of academic work, but also the exploration of the changing relationship between humans and machines. A recent statement by the European University Association, ChatGPT raises issues for universities in terms of updating policies to accommodate such tools while preserving recognition of course work and authentic assessment.

The Justice Department has unsealed conspiracy and wire fraud charges against 25 people in the $114 million sale of 7,600 fake diplomas from three now-defunct South Florida nursing schools. According to an FBI agent, the investigation into the nursing certificates began in 2019. The certificates allowed untrained individuals to sit for national nursing board exams and at least 2,800 of them passed.

Under the new measures approved on academic integrity for all its candidates, all Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members standing for election will have to list their degrees and sign an academic ethics statement declaring that they did not engage in plagiarism, falsification or ghostwriting when writing their theses. This follows the revoke of various doctoral degrees of DPP members for plagiarism allegations.

Of the one million students who sat for the national school-leaving exams, only 3.3% managed to achieve the 50% pass mark. The results revealed the multiple challenges that the education sector has long faced: increasing politicisation of the system that undermines meritocracy, corrupt and unethical practices to move students to the next level without the necessary preparation. Schools, teachers and headmasters, regional authorities and politicians have been involved in malpractice.

Education agencies across the globe are joining forces to fight the rise of commercial cheating services that target students worldwide. The newly formed Global Academic Integrity Network (GAIN) will share experiences and resources to help jurisdictions develop legislation, regulatory approaches and frameworks that penalise facilitating and advertising of cheating services. It was founded by Quality and Qualifications Ireland and Australia’s Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency and launched in Dublin last October.

The University of Johannesburg (UJ) is the first South African tertiary institution to use blockchain technology as an additional security measure to protect its certificates against alteration or falsification. The Director of Central Academic Administration calls on all tertiary institutions to collectively improve the integrity of their qualifications and enable companies to verify their qualifications easily and at no cost, which will help to prevent certificate fraud and curb counterfeiting.

167 final-year medical students at the University of Oxford will have to resit the exam after alleged misconduct in a clinical examination. The number of investigations related to academic misconduct such as cheating, malpractice and plagiarism has increased from 35 in 2018-19, to 68 in 2019-20 and 77 in 2020-21. The university said that of the investigations conducted in 2020-21, only eight cases of alleged academic misconduct were upheld as an offence, representing a small proportion of the 55,000 exams sat, of which the vast majority were open-book exams.

Not only have Nigerian students been cheating from each other for years, but also the plagiarised academic work hasn’t been included in any global database. In a report, Nigeria's Vice-President announced the new EagleScan anti-plagiarism software would improve the quality of research, teaching and learning in Nigeria and West Africa. He promised that the government would ensure that anti-plagiarism measures were fully implemented in the country's institutions.

At an official meeting, the Minister of Higher Education announced that measures will be taken to preserve the confidentiality of examinations in higher education institutions. Questionnaires and answer sheets should be sent via geo-located vehicles no earlier than 30 minutes before the start of the examination. A WhatsApp number has been issued on which complaints about malpractices may be forwarded.