Public education in Russia and other former Soviet countries is not free. Despite what the authorities might claim, hidden costs await any student trying to get into a good university or a prestigious faculty. These costs, which are in actuality required bribes, can take many different forms. For instance, a common practice is apparently for teachers to suggest to students that in order to improve grades or guarantee certain exam scores, they must receive extra tutoring from the instructor. If such tutoring is for an entrance exam, the teacher suggesting the tutoring might well wear another hat as, say, an exam administrator, or otherwise be involved with the examination grading process. In Moldova one teacher encouraged students to do construction and repairs on her house, in an apparent conflict of interest connected to student grading.
An article in Transitions Online describes the practice in universities in Uzbekistan, where there is a sliding payment scale:
Many teachers charge 20,000 soms ($15) for “excellent,” 15,000 to 16,000 for “good” and 10,000 to 13,000 for “satisfactory.” Or a student can simply pay about $200 to a dean or pro-rector to have all the necessary signatures for advancement in his or her exam sheet.
A recent Associated Press article describes corruption in Russia’s education system as “endemic.” On the scope of the corruption challenge in the education sphere, a spokesman for the Moscow police economic crimes department said "the problem of bribe-taking exists in every sphere - from the sale of vegetables to universities: where there is demand, there is supply."
The pressure to pay bribes comes from both sides. Teachers throughout Russia and countries of the former Soviet Union are severely underpaid. The physical infrastructure of schools is deteriorating. Feeling the pressure of rising costs, teachers are compelled to seek resources beyond their school salaries. From the supply side, parents are compelled to pay because they recognize that if they do not, other parents would, which through this system’s corrupt logic, would place the children of parents who opt out of the payment practice at a disadvantage.
A report, “Anti-Corruption Issues in Education,” produced by the Open Society Institute’s Education Support Program and other organizations, takes a look at the challenges to education posed by corruption and the approaches being used to combat it.
For an overview of the entire region and each country’s reforms, look at the following paper put together by UNICA, a network of 41 European Universities. The paper puts each country into one of three categories based upon their recent progress in implementing reforms into their education sector.
One potentially positive sign is that many countries in the former Soviet Union and Russia have signed on to the Bologna Process. This is a European initiative to reform and standardize criteria for Universities, with an eye towards creating a European Higher Education Area (EHEA) by 2010.
In Russia, however, there is an even more pernicious wave rippling through the higher education system. Many academics have been pressured to join United Russia and in the worst cases have been jailed for allegedly spying. It appears that Russia has used the imprisonment of arms researcher Igor Sutiagin to intimidate other academics and researchers who are involved in sensitive sectors. The education system in Russia has also fallen prey to the political cycle, where administrators and students are pressed into "duty" on behalf of dominant political powers.
More troubling in the longer term is the fact that students in the school setting are acculturated to institutionalized corruption in their formative years, shaping attitudes and perspectives as these young people move from the academic to the professional world. Breaking the mold afterwards becomes all the more difficult.
On my recent trip to Russia I met a former university-level English teacher who left the university to teach privately because of these problems...
The yearly migration of Russian undergraduate students to the USA as part of a work-study program continues unabated, however. I think this is a great opportunity for Russian students, but unfortunately neither the US nor the Russian institutions seek to maximize this potential.
On the other hand, talking to them I have heard lots of disturbing stories. Over-worked and underpaid, students have been forced to work for employers that have cut special deals with Russian faculty. Many do not get paid overtime and many faculty members require their students to reside at highly over-priced condominiums...
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