Combatting academic corruption and enhancing integrity: inventory of key questions for quality assurance and accreditation organizations

As academic corruption expanded further, far beyond degree and accreditation mills alone, CHEA’s International Quality Group (CIQG), working closely with UNESCO’s International Institute for International Planning (IIEP), issued another publication, an Advisory on Combatting Corruption and Enhancing Integrity in Higher Education, in 2016. As follow-up to the Advisory, CHEA/CIQG raised awareness about its findings through webinars, articles and Policy Briefs. Finally, based on the findings and recommendations of a CIQG-commissioned worldwide Survey on Policies and Actions of Accreditation and Quality Assurance Bodies to Counter Corruption in Higher Education (Glendinning et al., 2019), CIQG is taking steps to encourage additional action by quality assurance bodies to fight academic corruption.

The major findings of the 2019 survey are: • There is evidence of significant corruption in higher education.• Awareness of academic corruption is greater in some regions or countries than others.• Most current quality assurance methods are unlikely to uncover academic corruption.

Purpose of the Inventory: Based on the evidence demonstrated by the Survey that quality assurance/accreditation bodies, with a few exceptions, play a limited role in combatting academic corruption, the purpose of this Inventory is to provide ideas and suggestions to quality assurance bodies to further engage and assume greater responsibility in this area. The Inventory is based on the recommendations provided in the Survey, the Advisory Statementand suggestions from additional experts