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In February, Columbia Mathematics Professor questioned the Ivy League school’s rise in rankings in the U.S. News & World Report from 18th place, on its debut in 1988, to 2nd place in 2021. In response, Columbia University will refrain from submitting data for consideration in the publication’s 2022, and it will start participating in the Common Data Set Initiative, a collaborative effort among data providers in the higher education community and publishers to provide accurate information to students seeking information on institutions of higher education.

To identify students accurately and easily detect any potential impersonator, an expert from Cairo’s National Research Centre called on African universities to introduce biometric systems based on fingerprints and to install scanning systems at entrance gates, examination halls and lecture rooms. An Egyptian soccer player has been recently impersonated during the mid-year exam at a private higher education institution in Shabraman.

The University of Energy and Natural Resources in Ghana and the University of Rwanda have been the only African public universities providing reports including information such as the university structure, number and qualifications of academic and support staff, total enrolment, and the number of graduates. These reports are a model for universities to adopt and a means of promoting transparency, integrity, and accountability amongst faculty members, staff, students, and communities.

On the English version of its website, Kim Il Sung University has listed past, current and alleged partnerships with “sister universities” and claims, “international academic exchanges are in full swing”. Many of the named universities disagree and do not want to be associated with North Korea. They try to have their names removed from the website, but so far the University has failed to respond to their requests.

A study from the University of California reveals rankings may be distorted by the business activities of the ranker, including selling consulting, analytics and other services to universities. Findings show that Russian universities using services provided by QS, a major ranking company, have increased their positions in the QS World University Rankings regardless of improvements in the quality of their institutions.