Corruption in universities

Participants to the broadcast: Domnita Pagoni, Expert / Lawyer at the Centre for Analysis and Prevention of Corruption (CAPC), Tatiana Mostovei, Head of the Civil Interaction and Prevention Division, Department for Prevention, Analytics and Anti-corruption Programmes of the Centre for Combating Economic Crime and Corruption (CCECC).

INTRODUCTION

During our radio broadcasts we tackled the issue of corruption in education, especially in schools, lyceums and kindergartens, for a number of times. We have also talked about the corruption generated by the school-leaving examinations and exams for getting admitted in higher education institutions. We found out that Parents’ Associations represent the main modality for money-raising in schools for both: official and unofficial payments. One fact is certain: due to the corruption that is visible to children in pre-school and school institutions, the youth of today developed a high level of tolerance for corruption phenomenon, perceiving it as something normal. Children see that their parents have to pay on permanent basis in school, otherwise children may get persecuted by certain teachers, thus when they go to universities they perceive no problem in buying high grades so as to have successful results. We are just on the eve of winter-exam session in higher education institutions, that’s why we decided to deal today with “Corruption in Universities”. Our guests are: …

QUESTIONS:

1. How frequently the CAPC hot-line, 92-79-79, receives calls from people telling about cases of corruption in education and what would be the share of universities in such cases?

2. CCECC has a hot-line as well, 257-257. What is the approximate share of calls received by the CCECC hot-line referring to cases of corruption in education, especially the ones referring to university corruption?

3. Who are usually involved in corruption acts within higher education institutions?

4. Let’s take some examples form CAPC hot-line for our guests to comment them:

  • An interlocutor communicated about some abuses in the European University. The administrator of the university provides student-teacher mediator services for a fee of 50 euro. The same person also deals with promoting absent students during the exam-sessions for a fee of 500 euro per session.
  • According to another interlocutor, the Professor in Management from the Academy of Economic Studies from Moldova requests monetary amounts from 300 lei to 150 euro for checking the Master Degree Thesis and writing the reference for the thesis. It appears that she has asked for 300 lei from the interlocutor and 150 euro from interlocutor’s colleague: both of them paid the requested amounts.
  • Another interlocutor communicated that a professor from the Technical University of Moldova extorts from students a fee of 100 euro for passing exams and the defence of projects. In case the student does not pay the requested amount, he/she would get poor grades or would not pass the exam at all, having to search some “ways to solve the problem”.
  • The mother of a student from the Agrarian University communicated that the Professor of Romanian Language is deliberately decreasing students’ grades before exam-sessions, making them to pay for exams at least 300 lei (minimum fee) for a five. The increase of the grade with one point accounts for an additional fee of 150 lei. The same system was applied by other professors as well (for instance, Professor in Informatics). This piece of information was confirmed by a number of calls received by CAPC from other interlocutors.

5. By the way, we were discussing earlier about the Master Degree Thesis and I have a question about this: can we call corruption the situation when the professor writes the Master Degree Thesis instead of the student for whom he/she is the Scientific Guide for a certain amount of money?

6. From criminal legislation perspective, for which type of criminal offences provided in the Criminal Code, is CCECC instituting proceedings against professors?

7. In your opinion, how can we diminish corruption risk in higher education?