Over 100 students at the private KIM University in Kigali, Rwanda, have not been allowed to graduate in July 2021 after authorities detected that they had altered their grades in the university system. According to the Rwanda Bureau of Investigation, the suspects are accused of electronically falsifying documents and could face sentences of five to seven years in prison and fines ranging from 3 to 5 million Rwandan francs (about US$5,000).

Stellenbosch University experienced an unusual increase in academic misconduct amongst students due to the move to online assessments during the COVID crisis. In 2020, 183 students were charged with collusion, where one or more students assisted each other during online assessments, compared to only 2 students in 2019.

According to a press release from the Ministry of Justice, 84 individuals have been charged with fraud in the baccalaureate, 40 of whom have been placed under a detention order and 13 under judicial supervision. They are accused of disseminating exam subjects and examples of their marking and correction through social networks.

According to a professor from Nigeria’s Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), over 400 candidates seeking admission into higher education institutions across the country have been involved in admissions fraud. JAMB has discovered up to 96 cases of computer-based test irregularities in the North, with universities making changes to photographs and biometrics of candidates. This is contrary to a call by the Minister of Education who said institutions should not take any new photographs or biometrics of candidates after registration, in order to stop impersonations.

In Ghana, it is common to find journalists, university teachers, and government officials plagiarizing other people’s works. Recently, a senior lecturer at the University of Professional Studies, who is also the Head of the Banking and Finance Department, plagiarized a Facebook post and sent it to the Daily Graphic, which published it, both online and in print. When the lecturer was caught, he denied the offense, until the author of the content found sufficient evidence against him. University authorities have never investigated the case.

According to a computer scientist and expert in contract cheating, Kenya has established itself as the centre of the academic cheating universe. The vast majority of university students’ work for essay factories which are delivered to British students with a guarantee they contain no plagiarism and all anonymous. In an effort to clamp down on the cheats and after pressure from the British Government, PayPal announced it would block payments to essay factories.

Over 500 candidates had to re-sit for their Primary School Leaving Examinations after the National Examination Council of Tanzania (NECTA) discovered that some schools had leaked the examinations. According to the NECTA executive secretary, the leaked examinations were distributed through WhatsApp groups and primary schools. This was done in a well-orchestrated collaboration involving owners of the schools, supervisors, and authorities responsible for storing the exam papers at Nyanduga Primary School, Rorya.