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The Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture has revoked 31 private higher education licences after finding that the institutions did not meet the required standards in terms of facilities and student numbers, that teaching was poor, and that there had been allegations of bogus courses and fraudulent issuing of diplomas. The Ministry will help students from the institutions concerned to transfer to accredited institutions. Teachers who are found not to have been involved in the fraudulent schemes will receive the same assistance, otherwise, they will be blacklisted.

Fake Degrees and Fraudulent Credentials in Higher Education brings together contributions from authors in different fields and parts of the world, offering an overview of various aspects of academic fraud and highlighting the erosion of trust in academia and academics that systematically accompanies such cases. In the first chapter of the book on contract cheating and paper mills, we learn that the worldwide fake degree industry has grown from US$1 billion in 2015 to US$22 billion in 2022. Experts estimate that 4.7 billion people hold or have held fake diplomas.

False qualifications damage the South African economy in several ways: they reduce productivity, increase expenditure, damage reputation, undermine confidence in the education system and reduce tax revenues. Governments and businesses need to tackle this problem, particularly by enforcing existing restrictions, improving the quality of education and training, setting up a centralized system for verifying qualifications and applying sanctions against those offering false certificates.

Corruption and impunity in the Nigerian university system have had a negative impact on the governance of Federal tertiary institutions and the quality of education received by students. In a recent report, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project stated that various allegations of corruption in federal universities ranging from the unfair award of degrees, inflation of contracts, and cuts in staff salaries to the employment of unqualified staff and sexual harassment - are now widespread, and the condition of most of the structures housing the various faculties and departments of these institutions is poorly maintained.

The Punjab Vigilance Bureau has arrested five Education Department officials for committing irregularities and misappropriation in safeguarding official records relating to the recruitment of 9,998 posts in 2007. The fraud came to light following complaints that many candidates had submitted bogus documents, including fake experience certificates. The officials were arrested while the investigation is still underway.

A special parliamentary committee has been set up to investigate fake certificates and distance education programs that do not meet any standards or regulations. A report shows that universities are receiving calls from senior politicians asking them to enroll students in faculties for which they are not qualified. Other findings include bribery and corruption, difficulties in accessing higher education, and misuse of the Internet.

According to the Kenya National Qualifications Authority (KNQA), at least one out of every three people employed in Kenya has a fake academic certificate, i.e. About 30 per cent (at least 250,000) of the civil service workforce. In March 2023, the Kenya Medical Training College revoked the admission of 53 medical trainees after it was discovered that they had joined the institution using fake secondary school certificates. The Public Service Commission and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission then ordered all public and private employers to conduct audits of employees' academic qualifications over the past ten years to ensure their accountability.

The new book “Corrupted: A study of chronic dysfunction in South African universities” is an account of chronic corruption rooted in a political economy framework combined with a lack of governance and management capacity and academic integrity. These universities are all located in resource-poor areas where the university is the main source of funding and an opportunity for corruption, ranging from contracts (such as building projects) to services (such as transport), to student accommodation and the sale of fake certificates.

The Justice Department has unsealed conspiracy and wire fraud charges against 25 people in the $114 million sale of 7,600 fake diplomas from three now-defunct South Florida nursing schools. According to an FBI agent, the investigation into the nursing certificates began in 2019. The certificates allowed untrained individuals to sit for national nursing board exams and at least 2,800 of them passed.