ERIC Number: EJ784043
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2008-Feb
Pages: 25
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0010-4086
EISSN: N/A
The Cost of Corruption in Higher Education
Heyneman, Stephen P.; Anderson, Kathryn H.; Nuraliyeva, Nazym
Comparative Education Review, v52 n1 p1-25 Feb 2008
Corruption was symptomatic of business and government interactions in Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union before and during the economic transition of the 1990s. Corruption is difficult to quantify, but the perception of corruption is quantifiable. Nations can even be arranged along a hierarchy by the degree to which they are perceived as being corrupt, for instance, in their business practices or in the administration of public responsibilities. Based on the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index for 2005, a world map shows how pervasive corruption remains in the public sector. According to this index, countries in the former USSR region, including Central Asia and the Caucasus, were among the most corrupt countries in the world in 2005. With the breakup of the USSR and decentralization, ministries and local governments operated more independently than under the planned economy. The central government's enforcement mechanisms weakened, and rent-seeking (using administrative position for personal gain) activity was not as effectively monitored as under central planning. The result, at least in the earliest years of independence, was an increase in overall corruption and inefficiency at many levels of government and administration, and the education sector was not immune from these forces. Ministry of Education officials began to demand bribes for accreditation and procurement. Administrators demanded bribes for admission, housing, book rental, grades, exams, and transcripts. Teachers demanded bribes for admission, grades and exams, and book purchases. This article illustrates the extent of higher-education corruption by citing student surveys in six countries--the Kyrgyz Republic, Kazakhstan, Croatia, Moldova, Serbia, and Bulgaria. These surveys suggest that corruption varies in accordance with the market demand for the subject of study, with higher frequencies of corruption found in the subjects in highest demand. Also, corruption is more likely to be found in local universities with local professional codes of conduct and less likely to be found in universities accredited in Europe or North America. (Contains 8 tables, 3 figures and 34 footnotes.)
Descriptors: Student Surveys, Foreign Countries, Public Sector, Higher Education, Private Sector, Labor Market, Scores, Universities, Educational Attainment
University of Chicago Press. Journals Division, P.O. Box 37005, Chicago, IL 60637. Tel: 877-705-1878; Tel: 773-753-3347; Fax: 877-705-1879; Fax: 773-753-0811; e-mail: subscriptions@press.uchicago.edu; Web site: http://www.journal.uchicago.edu
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Asia; Bulgaria; Croatia; Kazakhstan; Kyrgyzstan; Moldova; North America; Russia; Serbia
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A