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Ukraine has little to offer international students. The quality of education offered is low, there is endless red tape and corruption is rife. Over the past quarter century, the quality of education offered has dropped dramatically due not only to a lack of state funding and a consequent brain drain, but primarily to rampant endemic corruption. Failed structural reforms and institutional incapacity in higher education have left Ukrainian youth without any hope of receiving world-class education and have had a negative impact on international students as well.

Non-governmental organizations (NGO) have stated there are corruption schemes in the Ministry of Education and Science related to budget funds allocated for the needs of schools. According to the leader of NGO Maidan Information the Ministry of Education issued an order, according to which only one firm can supply school equipment. He noted that most equipment in schools have not been updated since the Soviet times, therefore it is unclear what happens with the UAH 200 million in state funds set aside for this purpose.

An ITV documentary has investigated whether some schools are taking duplicitous measures to achieve top marks. The problem is said to have developed after league tables based on exam results were introduced in 1992, putting more pressure on schools to perform well. Schools can obtain more financial rewards if they feature highly in league tables, while the jobs of heads and teachers are at risk if a bad Ofsted inspection means the school goes into special measures.

Oxford University has been urged in an open letter to review its decision to accept £75m from Britain’s richest man to build the Blavatnik School of Government. The letter also urges the university to carry out urgent “transparency and procedural reforms” with regard to foreign donations.

Thousands of students have signed up to 'unlawful' contracts that allow universities to increase tuition fees arbitrarily or discontinue their course, an investigation has alleged. University students can have their fees increased or their degree course altered on a whim as a result of unfair contract terms. A consumer lobby group said one in five universities were using unlawful contract terms to give them unlimited power to change courses once students have enrolled.

Many of the UK’s leading universities are refusing to spell out just how they are spending their students’ £9,000 (US$13,600) a year tuition fees. The influential think-tank, the Higher Education Policy Institute, invited a range of institutions to explain how they were spending the money - but the majority, including almost all the of the country’s most select universities, declined to reply.

The independence of Swiss universities from the corporate world has again been called into question as details of pharmaceutical sponsorship deals were broadcast by Swiss public television, SRF. The programme found evidence that one firm may have manipulated academic research data. SRF research shows financial links between pharma giants and several leading universities. The most damning revelation is that one group demanded to see research every three months and reserved the right to make “acceptable alterations” to results.

Every researcher in the Netherlands is to be questioned about whether they have committed research misconduct or engaged in “sloppy science” as part of a major national effort to bolster scientific standards. In response to rising concerns over a “reproducibility crisis” in science and a series of high-profile fraud cases in the Netherlands, the country is to commit 8 million euros ($9 million) to understanding the problem, finding solutions and trying to reproduce critical studies.