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A new system of performance-related pay in schools risks fuelling a rise in fraud as teachers attempt to falsify pupils' results to win salary rises. Teachers could be tempted to "over-egg" children's work to prove they are doing a good job and the proposals could also lead to major employment disputes within schools if teachers who fail to receive higher pay lodge official discrimination claims.

The University of Düsseldorf has withdrawn the doctoral title of Germany's Minister of Education and Research, claiming that she lifted material for her thesis. While the Minister is seeking to contest the university's verdict, the opposition in parliament has called for her resignation. A Bonn academic and law expert has claimed that the case may have damaged higher education as a whole in Germany.

For years, Greek higher education has been operating a system in which academic freedom has been interpreted in a broad context and has been used to justify a range of otherwise unethical and even illegal actions. Almost all stakeholders, including Greece's political parties, have taken advantage of the loose interpretation of academic freedom.

Comments linked with an announcement on a new "bogus students" crackdown has threatened the country's multi-billion university sector, according to a group that represents British universities. They suggested that overseas students were no longer welcome in Britain and were instead choosing to study in North America and Australia.

Russia's state education watchdog has added four universities to a list of educational institutions that will be prohibited from enrolling new students from this autumn, the agency said in a statement last week. The addition of two universities in Moscow and two in Dagestan bring the list of educational institutions blacklisted in recent days to 12.

For Dutch Youth Representative for UNESCO, education has to come to the forefront of the development debate. He states that the implementation and effectiveness of many education programmes is hampered by corruption, and that young people can play a vital role in combatting this.

The last time Ukrainian cities faced occupation and artillery bombing was during World War II. That was until this spring, when Russia annexed Crimea and started to supply rebels who have occupied large cities in the East of Ukraine. This has changed everyday life for millions of Ukrainian citizens, among them thousands of school-leavers who want to enter university.

The chair of a universities' task force on reforming admissions procedures for third level has admitted colleges have been artificially inflating points by offering courses with a small student intake.

The parliament's representative of French citizens living in Northern Europe, pleads for a systematic use of anti-plagiarism software. "It is a question of equal chances", insists the Deputy when addressing the Ministers of National and Higher Education on this subject.

A government-commissioned study of the placement of Norwegian universities in global rankings – in particular compared to other Nordic institutions – has concluded that even the top rankings are so based on subjective weightings of factors and on dubious data that they are useless as a basis for information if the goal is to improve higher education.