23.09.07
At first glance, the UK appears to have emerged unscathed from a UNESCO report into corruption in education
Titled Corrupt Schools; corrupt Universities: What can be done?, the report does refer to the existence of the UK’s diploma mills and describes the country as the sort of place in which corruption is usually individual and non-systemic.
Global revealations...
However, all this is very mild stuff compared to what is going on elsewhere. Among many instances highlighted, the report reveals how:
Words of warning
However, look beyond these examples and there are some words of warning for the UK about where possible scandals are likely to occur.
The report states that:
‘the merchandizing of higher education has become another important feature in many countries. In fact, the deep financial crisis faced by universities combined with pressures for raising funds have led some of them to increase admission fees, offer new prestigious but expensive degrees... raise the proportion of fee-paying overseas students, open franchised institutions or courses, and so on. In the United Kingdom, for instance, fewer than 10 per cent of foreign undergraduates contribute more to university financing than British and EU scholars put together.
Whereas British and EU students pay a little over £1,000 a year, foreign students are charged anything between £8,000 and £20,000 for the same courses (Suroor, 2005)... Given the profitability of these practices, new possibilities for distorted practices and academic fraud have arisen. This corruption is facilitated by the fact that different people, sometimes from different continents, are charged with recruiting, orienting and supporting overseas students academically, or with certifying the different courses proposed by a franchised university.’