Socioeconomic Implications of Examination Fraud and Assessment Irregularities in South Africa’s Higher Education Sector: A Futuristic View

Abstract

This paper, based on scholarly as well as documentary evidence, intends to highlight thesocioeconomic implications of fraud and assessment irregularities in South Africa’s higher education. Highereducation institutions serve nation building purposes and as such it is expected that what they produceshould be of high standard in order to further this purpose. Lately, owing to the rise in assessmentmalpractices across South African institutions of higher learning, calls have been made by business andsociety for ways to deal with this. This paper asks a few questions related to what constitutes fraud andassessment irregularities and the sources of these. The paper also points out what these portend for highereducation in South Africa while at the same suggesting some recommendations. This paper contributes to theliterature on the growing concerns of educators and researchers regarding high levels of examinationmalpractice and assessment irregularities within higher education sector globally, but in particular SouthAfrica.