Corruption in Higher Education by Paul Temple and Georgy Petrov

760 Words2 Pages

Introduction
According to research conducted in 2008 by “Psychological Center” in Azerbaijan almost 40% of students and academics and every second teacher at state universities accepts bribes. Corruption is the most dangerous disease of the world. It is undesirable for every society if corruption grows in education sector. It is an undeniable fact that Azerbaijan is the country which suffers from corruption, especially in education. I will mainly focus on corruption in state universities of Azerbaijan, more particularly its background, its current level, causes, culprits, general solutions, and my solutions to the problem.
Background
As mentioned in the book called “Corruption in Higher Education: Some findings from the States of the Former Soviet Union” written by Paul Temple and Georgy Petrov from Institute of Education, University of London, United Kingdom, corruption in higher education is common in the States of Former Soviet Republic, especially in Azerbaijan, Russia, and Ukraine. Azerbaijan still uses the structure of Soviet times’ education system. There are large number of institutions specialized on occupational sectors, and they are under control of the Ministries for the relevant areas. There are also small chairs, kafedra, within universities. These show that there was a problem in the management structure of the state universities since Soviet Union times, and it is unchanged now. Azerbaijan’s state universities have historically experienced corruption, and although Azerbaijan gained its independence 23 years ago, fewer things have changed in education system. For the quality and effectiveness of university education, Azerbaijan was the one of the prominent republics in Soviet Union. Nevertheless, when USSR coll...

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... do not need to take a bribe for making living. It does not matter which system is used; if staff of university cannot make living with salary, they will be get acquainted with corruption.
2. Other solution is that in public universities the student parliaments should be established which will use the method of classic labor unions; these parliaments can be rivals to university administrations to protect students’ rights.
3. An independent accreditation structure could help to reduce corruption at state universities of Azerbaijan. (As Rector of Khazar University, Hamlet Isakhanli suggests)
4. To create Honor Code which provide students with their duties and obligations.

Works Cited

According to research conducted in 2008 by “Psychological Center” in Azerbaijan almost 40% of students and academics and every second teacher at state universities accepts bribes.

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