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A medical school admission examinations scandal in India has turned into a veritable whodunit with thousands of arrests, mysterious deaths and the suspected involvement of top politicians and bureaucrats.

Australian universities are paying more than an estimated $250 million each year to unregulated middlemen for the recruitment of international students, despite widespread acknowledgement that a number of these agents are corrupt and deal in fraudulent documents.

The Kaduna State government has uncovered about 33 phony primary schools in some local government areas. The fake schools were detected during the first phase of biometric verification exercise of state employees ordered by the Governor. The government, which pays about N3 billion monthly as salaries and allowances to its employees, was said to have saved N120 million from fake employee disbursements in the first phase of the exercise.

As part of his duties, a clerical officer at the ministry has seen the suspension and even the dismissal of a number of teachers found to have committed wrong in their schools either by abusing their pupils or by embezzling funds. He is now under the microscope himself, accused of holding fraudulent qualifications.

In India, university fraud is a national sport, practiced at all levels. Beginning with the former prime minister up to the former Delhi justice minister who allegedly fakes his qualification in … law. The increase in fake qualifications is undoubtedly linked to the lack of universities in the country, with some of the harshest selection processes in the world. Leaving the country to study overseas is so expensive that counterfeit diplomas from international universities abound.

Academic fraud such as bribery, bogus universities and falsified research findings is hardly a new phenomenon but it seems to be escalating worldwide, prompting quality assurance professionals meeting last week in Washington, DC to grapple with how, if at all, they can help combat the problem. No consensus was reached, but a prevailing view emerged that the potential consequences, if left unchecked, are dire.

For the past three years, the Rwanda Education Board (REB) has not ranked schools when releasing results of national examinations. Their reason is simple – ranking increases unnecessary pressure and competition in schools, which promotes malpractices. Surprisingly, in the just released national examinations for primary and ordinary level, an increase in exam malpractices was spotted. In Primary Six alone, cases rose by an eye watering 80.4 per cent to 455, up from 89 reported cases in 2014.

Twenty-one people have been arrested after US authorities set up a fake university to expose immigration fraud. Officials said the accused knew that the University of Northern New Jersey did not exist, but they were unaware it was a ruse run by immigration agents. The defendants acted as brokers for more than 1,000 foreigners who sought to maintain student and work visas, prosecutors said. Most foreign nationals involved in the scheme came from China and India.

Concerned over fake universities duping students in the country, a Parliamentary panel has sought "exemplary" action against such bodies and those who violate UGC guidelines. In another significant observation, the panel focused on issues related to corruption in All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). The panel recommended that the HRD ministry improve the accountability and strengthen vigilance mechanism in AICTE.

Political interference in Africa’s universities is not new. Universities’ governance was seen as ‘captured’ for narrow political rather than academic ends during the 1980s and 1990s. The continent’s universities started changing from the middle of the 1990s. Strong governance structures were prioritised. Governments promised to help steady institutions so they could focus on their academic missions. But studies funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and conducted by CODESRIA, suggest that not much has changed. The same tensions and crises associated with the old political order – student disturbances, harassment of academic staff and widespread academic corruption – persist.