When the first edition of Degree Mills was published, fake universities and counterfeit degrees were already a significant problem. Fueled by the Internet, this scam continues to grow—now more than half of all people claiming a new PhD in fact have a fake degree. In this updated edition, experts Allen Ezell and John Bear go beyond exposing these fraudulent practices to provide detailed recommendations—for government agencies, educational institutions, and individuals—on what can be done to rid us of them. This eye-opening and definitive guide shows how degree mills operate and how to check the validity of anyone’s degree—an indispensable reference book.

An analysis that cuts through the rhetorical claims of the higher education through internet that these developments will bring benefits for all.

Corruption and poor governance are acknowledged as major impediments to realizing the right to education and to reaching the Millennium Development Goal of universal primary education by 2015. Corruption not only distorts access to education, but affects the quality of education and the reliability of research findings. From corruption in the procurement of school resources and nepotism in the hiring of teachers, to the buying and selling of academic titles and the skewing of research results, major corruption risks can be identified at every level of the education and research systems. Conversely, education serves as a means to strengthen personal integrity and is a critical tool to address corruption effectively. The Global Corruption Report (GCR) is Transparency International’s flagship publication, bringing the expertise of the anti-corruption movement to bear on a specific corruption issue or sector. The Global Corruption Report on education consists of more than 70 articles commissioned from experts in the fields of corruption and education, from universities, think-tanks, business, civil society and international organisations. The Global Corruption Report on education and academic research will provide essential analysis for understanding the corruption risks in the sector and highlight the significant work that has already been done in the field to improve governance and educational outcomes. This will be an opportunity to pull together cutting edge knowledge on lessons learnt, innovative tools and solutions that exist in order to fight corruption in the education sector.

In July 2022, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe adopted Recommendation CM/Rec(2022)18 aimed at assisting its member states in combating fraud in the field of education. The recommendation followed four years of work in the framework of the ETINED platform of the Council of Europe on ethics, integrity and transparency in education, and addresses the need for a common European approach in this field. This new international standard is structured in four dimensions: prevention, prosecution, international co-operation and monitoring. The text makes six main recommendations to member states of the Council of Europe: to promote high-quality education by eliminating education fraud; to protect pupils, students, researchers and staff at all levels of education from organisations and individuals engaged in selling (and advertising) fraudulent services; to provide support for the implementation of preventive and protective measures, as well as a culture of equality of opportunity at all levels and in all sectors of education and training, and in the transition between these sectors; to monitor technological developments that could support new forms of fraud; to facilitate international co-operation in the field; to support wide dissemination of the recommendation. The research studies in this book analyse the situation in countering education fraud in some member states at the time when the recommendation was adopted and give suggestions for consistent implementation of it in the future.