The country’s anti-corruption agency is partnering with the National Universities Commission, or NUC, to sponsor 20 doctoral theses engaging with anti-corruption issues over the next 10 years and to introduce an anti-corruption course for all students at undergraduate level. The Head of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission said university students constituted a strategic target for anti-corruption training and awareness which is the reason for their support of anti-corruption research and scholarship and the anti-corruption course for all university undergraduates.

Zimbabwean police arrested the Higher Education, Science and Technology Minister and his deputy on Wednesday for allegedly misappropriating around US$450,000 from a manpower development fund that finances students, among other activities. The politicians were questioned and released. Days before his arrest the minister – a former politics professor at the University of Zimbabwe and researcher at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, which accused him of embezzling research funds – issued a statement denying any wrongdoing.

Plagiarism is an issue of concern in institutions of learning across the world. There are several widely held ideas about plagiarism in Nigeria, but they have not been substantiated because of a lack of empirical findings. However, a recently completed doctoral research project on student plagiarism in Nigerian universities has thrown more light on the matter.