International Higher Education, Winter 2005

Academic Corruption: The Continuing Challenge

Philip G. Altbach
Philip G. Altbach is J. Donald Monan SJ professor of higher education and director of the Center for International Higher Education at Boston College.

If the spate of news reports about corruption in higher education indicates the scope of the problem, the world is seeing a dramatic increase in the phenomenon. Not only is corruption undermining the core values of higher education in some parts of the world, it is creating problems of credibility as societies link universities with unsavory practices. After all, higher education’s bedrock mission consists of the pursuit of knowledge and truth. Universities worldwide have long claimed special privileges of autonomy, academic freedom and support by society precisely because of their devotion to the public good and their reputations for probity. They have long enjoyed high social prestige precisely for these commitments. If universities lose their standing in society as special institutions, they will suffer unparalleled damage.

Stories of Corruption
Here is a sampling of current press reports on academic corruption. These stories provide a sense of the scope and variety of the problem worldwide.

Russia is introducing a national entrance test for university admissions, in considerable part because of perceived corruption in the traditional entrance system. Russian families pay about $300 million annually to ensure acceptance to universities, and another $700 million once students are enrolled. A former deputy prime minister put the amount spent on academic bribes at between $2 and $5 billion a year. Family and political connections account for further corruption in the entry process. The test, it is hoped, will eliminate subjectivity in admissions, allowing meritocratic decisions and also better access for applicants from outside the major cities. The point here is that corruption is seen as so endemic to the system that a major reform had to be implemented in an effort to curb it.

Admissions involves a lot of corruption because of the coveted nature of access to higher education, especially to the most prestigious universities. With its long history of competitive and highly regarded national examinations for admission to many of its universities, China recently suffered an admissions scandal covered in the national media. University officials demanded a payment of $12,000 from a student whose test score qualified him for admission to a prestigious university. One critic noted, “Over the past few years, we have been trying to marketize higher education and turn it into an industry…but whenever money is involved in anything, there will be problems.” The press reported that this case is “just the tip of the iceberg.”

The University of Port Harcourt, in southern Nigeria, recently revoked the degrees of 7,254 of its graduates in a crackdown on academic fraud. The head of the university charged students stripped of their degrees with either cheating on examinations of falsifying their academic records, in cases going back to 1966. He characterized Nigerian universities as rife with corruption, with many students being admitted with false secondary school certificates. A report by the Exams Ethics Project, a nongovernmental organization, noted that, “Academic fraud and corruption is a big business in Nigeria.”

In South Korea, the government demanded that three private universities fire 68 faculty members and administrators, on charges of embezzlement, mismanagement of funds, and bribery. Investigators found that one school diverted $4.9 million to personal use and illegally redirected another $4.6 million.

Why Now?
The current focus on corruption in higher education indicates the prevalence of the problem—although the phenomenon is by no means unprecedented in history. While we have no way of knowing if academic corruption is in fact more widespread than in earlier times, it is certainly attracting more attention. One can pose several hypotheses as to why there seems to be more corruption.

The greater scrutiny of academic institutions relates to higher education’s high profile for providing social mobility. A successful career requires an academic degree, even if obtained fraudulently or from a “degree mill.” As a result, academe attracts more attention, and more criticism, from the mass media. And it is under greater pressure to provide both the access and the certification that is essential for success.

Furthermore, as has been pointed out, as higher education has “marketized,” it adopted more and more commercial values, including a greater predilection for corruption, and a greater distance from traditional academic values.

A related phenomenon is the massificaiton of higher education. Many newer mass higher education providers, not only universities but also commercial enterprises offering postsecondary qualifications, also have only marginal connections to core academic values.

The deterioration of the idea of higher education as a “common good” has created unprecedented pressures on academe. Around the world, the state has withdrawn support from higher education. Even the most prestigious universities have had to be more concerned with the “bottom line.” Commercial considerations loom ever larger in academic affairs. Few institutions know how to ensure adequate income in this new environment, and some have been lured into engaging in corrupt practices.

Professors and administrators, faced with deteriorating salaries and working conditions, in some cases are taking part in corruption. A growing number of part-time and poorly trained regular faculty are especially prone to corruption. They lack an understanding of the meaning of the traditional university as well as the means to support themselves from their academic salaries.

New providers of higher education, including business enterprises and some new for-profit academic institutions, have little understanding of academic values. They are in the higher education business exclusively to earn money. As traditional universities with inadequate management skills partner with these new providers, there is a clash of cultures and corruption is possible.

The Internet, another area of potential problems, constitutes an untamed frontier filled with all kinds of academic offerings, from worthless degrees that can be purchased and unregulated academic programs from a diverse range of providers to a few thoughtfully designed programs offered by respected universities. There is great latitude for shady practices.

Corruption and related ethical problems present an unprecedented threat to higher education. The loss of higher education’s objectivity, honesty, and high ethical standards would remove the central rationale for public support. The growing number of bad apples in the barrel is threatening the entire academic enterprise.