While the Kuwaiti Cultural Office in Lebanon continues to warn Kuwaiti students from dealing with commercial agencies and only seek official sources for academic information, informed sources revealed that the Kuwaiti and Lebanese authorities are closely following the case in which hundreds of students have applied to study at universities located in Northern Lebanon and are described to have extremist inclination.

The sources further revealed that security forces in Kuwait and Lebanon have limited the number of students who obtained their high school degrees from outside Kuwait.

Meanwhile, other sources revealed that the Public Prosecution has received complaints from the Ministry of Education regarding 19 people allegedly accused of holding forged academic certificates, which they presented to the ministry for certification. They added that the suspects would be referred to the Prosecution for interrogation by next week.

The sources also pointed out that the prosecution office is dealing with this matter with a great deal of concern. On a separate issue, the sources said that the prosecution has ordered extending the imprisonment of an owner of an educational office that sends students abroad.

In a related development, the prosecution ordered the release of the main suspect in the forgery of an engineering certificate from an Indian university.
Earlier reports had said that an employer that runs an agency which specializes in sending Kuwaiti students to pursue higher studies abroad was arrested in connection with issuing fake degree certificates. The public prosecutor, Rashid Al-Othman passed an order in connection with this. Officials said the Ministry of Higher Education had requested for an investigation to be held into the matter.

The ministry had earlier reported that it had received an application from a citizen who had requested accreditation for a Bachelor of Engineering degree obtained from India. They added that ministry officials had discovered that the degree certificate was fake and that its holder had only gone to India for a week through the suspect's office, reported Al-Qabas. Initial investigations have revealed that the 'student' had paid the agent KD 8,000 to obtain the forged degree certificate.

Kuwait Times