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After studying for two years to be a teacher, one student found out that the degree her school offers is worthless. It is a story being replayed across many Indian cities. Poorly regulated, unaccredited and often entirely fake colleges have sprung up as demand for higher education accelerates, driven by rising aspirations and a bulging youth population.

Independent investigations into journalism diplomas awarded at Windesheim University have found that one in four students should not actually have been awarded one. In what is seen as one of the biggest failures of quality assurance in Netherlands higher education, two independent committees that looked into the work of all students who graduated in the past two years concluded that 86 out of 360 students should not have received a diploma.

According to the most recent report of Accredibase, the UK-based background screening company Verifile Limited, there was a staggering 48% increase in the number of known degree or diploma mills operating worldwide last year. It identified more than 2,500 bogus institutions across all regions, but primarily in North America and Europe.

Iona College acknowledged Tuesday that its former provost had, for nearly a decade, manipulated and misreported student-related data to government officials, accrediting bodies, bond rating agencies, and others.

An Education Minister says the University of Wales has let down higher education in Wales and brought the nation "into disrepute". His criticism comes after a watchdog's report told the university to review its worldwide college links, which include in particular a college in Bangkok said to be operating illegally.

Up to 80 state and private universities may be involved in selling teacher certificates or offering courses without accreditation, according to authorities. The Office of the Higher Education Commission (Ohec), which is investigating a university in Khon Kaen province found to have sold professional teacher certificates to graduates, said it would widen its probe to 77 other providers which had produced an unusually high number of teaching graduates.

The Italian cabinet has ordered the roll-out of a national accreditation scheme for academics to stamp out nepotism. Under the new scheme, commissions of five senior academics appointed in each university will accredit applicants for associate or full professorships on the basis of the quality and quantity of their academic output.

India's education ministry appears to have hit a snag in its anticorruption campaign. The Supreme Court ordered the federal government to conduct a review of 44 "deemed universities" that the ministry had stripped of university status last February.