This study analyses the issue of comparative corruption in the national higher education sectors in the United States of America (USA) and the Russian Federation (RF). Corruption in higher education, as well as the way it is addressed in legislation and court cases and reflected in the media, appears to be consistent with the trajectory and pace of reforms that take place in the USA and the RF. The continuing massification of higher education, with increasing enrolment rates in both countries, as well as the emergence of the for-profit sector, necessitate more control and coordination on the part of the governments, educational institutions and the public. The two systems of higher education slowly and independently converge. In both systems, professional hierarchies based on meritocracy clash with managerialism based on the thriving for-profit principle. As a result, forms of corruption in higher education may become more similar.