Corruption in Russia’s Doctoral Education

Osipian, Ararat (2008): Corruption in Russia’s Doctoral Education.

Abstract

Doctorates have long attracted attention of those aspiring to scholarship and research, but also those seeking verbal distinctions and a documented knowledge. Doctoral degrees are considered as signs of a high level expertise and authority in a given filed. The growing number of dissertation defenses does not necessarily translate into a higher quality of dissertations or qualifications of newly produced doctorates. Such a trend may in part be a result of the growing corruption in higher education, including doctoral education. This paper addresses the issue of “dissertations for sale” in the Russian Federation. It describes corruption in conferring doctoral degrees in its most explicit forms and focuses on possible solutions for this problem. It searches to answer the questions: Why people buy doctorates? Whether this practice is harmful? Is corruption in doctoral education really a bad thing? Is it possible to stop such a practice and how? Answering these questions helps develop a conceptual approach to the problem of doctorates for sale, on the basis of which it will be possible to build future theoretical and empirical work.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: corruption, dissertation, doctoral degrees, higher education, Russia
• Subjects: P - Economic Systems > P3 - Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions > P36 - Consumer Economics ; Health ; Education and Training ; Welfare, Income, Wealth, and Poverty; P - Economic Systems > P3 - Socialist Institutions and Their Transitions > P37 - Legal Institutions ; Illegal Behavior; I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I2 - Education and Research Institutions > I23 - Higher Education ; Research Institutions; I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I2 - Education and Research Institutions > I28 - Government Policy

References

Dissertatsii i avtoreferaty uchenyh budut proveriat’ na plagiat v obiazatel’nom poriadke [Dissertations and autoreferates of the scholars will have to pass the obligatory check for plagiarism]. Newsru.com. July 5, 2007. Retrieved July 5, 2007, from http://www.newsru.com/russia/05jul2007/plagiat_print.html

Simakin, D. (2006). Doktora nevidimogo fronta: Pochti tret’ zashchishchennyh v poslednie gody dissertatsij napisana za den’gi [Doctors of invisible front: almost third of all the dissertations defended during the last few years were written for money]. Nezavisimaya gazeta. March 24, 2006. Retrieved July 5, 2007, from http://www.ng.ru/inquiry/2006-03-24/1_doctors.html

Nerad, M. (2004). The PhD in the US: Criticisms, Facts, and Remedies, Higher Education Policy, 17(2), pp. 183-199.

Beliakov, S., Lugachyov, M., & Markov, A. (1998). Financial and Institutional Change in Russian Higher Education. Centre for Economic Reform and Transformation, Department of Economics, Heriot-Watt University Working Paper No. DP98/05. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=142307

Sykes, J. B. (Ed.). (1976). The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English. Sixth Edition. Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 229.

Anechiarico, F., & Jacobs, J. (1995). The Pursuit of Absolute Integrity: How Corruption Control Makes Government Ineffective. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Heyneman, S. (2004). Education and Corruption. International Journal of Educational Development, 24, pp. 638-658.

Petrov, G., & Temple, P. (2004). Corruption in Higher Education: Some Findings from the States of the Former Soviet Union. Higher Education Management and Policy, 16(1), pp. 83-99.

Osipian, A. (2007). Corruption in Higher Education: Conceptual Approaches and Measurement Techniques. Research in Comparative and International Education, 4(2), pp. 313-332.

Osipian, A. (2008). Corruption and Coercion: University Autonomy versus State Control. European Education: Journal of Issues and Studies, forthcoming.

Heyneman, S. (2007). Three Universities in Georgia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan: the Struggle against Corruption and for Social Cohesion, Prospects 37(3), pp. 305-318;

Osipian, A. (2009). Corruption and Reform in Higher Education in Ukraine. Canadian and International Education Journal, 38(1), forthcoming.

Osipian, A. (2007). Higher Education Corruption in Ukraine: Opinions and Estimates. International Higher Education, 49.

Podolyan, L. (2006). Chi mozhlivij ukraїns’kij ekvіvalent PhD, abo yak unemozhliviti kupіvlju disertatsії [Is Ukrainian equivalent of PhD possible, or how to make the purchase of a dissertation impossible]. Dzerkalo tyzhnya, October 19, 2006. Retrieved June 12, 2007, from http://www.osvita.org.ua/articles/138.html

Antonovich, M., & Merezhko, O. (2007). Yak podolati koruptsіju [How to eradicate corruption]. Dzerkalo tyzhnya, January 11, 2007. Retrieved June 12, 2007, from http://www.zn.kiev.ua

Klepko, S. (2006). Dyssertatsijna motuzka: skorochuetsia chi podovzhuetsia? [Dissertation loop: does it get shorter or longer?] Osvita, October 26, 2006. Retrieved October 26, 2006, from http://www.osvita.org.ua/articles/137.html

Taksanov, A. (2003). Yavlenie korruptsii v Uzbekistane [Phenomenon of corruption in Uzbekistan]. CentrAziya, May 3, 2003.

Amerikanskie uchenye obvinili Putina v plagiate. Eto mozhet povlech massovuju proverku dissertatsiy rossijskih chinovnikov [American scholars accused Putin in plagiarism. This can result in a massive check of all the dissertations defended by Russian public officials]. Newsru.com. March 27, 2006. Retrieved July 5, 2007, from http://www.newsru.com/russia/27mar2006/disser.html

Los Angeles Times: Moskva – mirovaya stolitsa bezzastenchivyh poddelok [Los Angeles Times: Moscow is the world capital of forgeries]. Newsru.com. July 11, 2006. Retrieved July 5, 2007, from http://www.newsru.com/russia/11jul2006/forgery.html

Krasilova, N. (2006). Ostepenennye deputaty: Mnogim chinovnikam i parlamentariyam ne dajut pokoya nauchnye lavry [The MPs with the degrees: Many state bureaucrats and the parliamentarians lost sleep over their academic laurels]. Novye Izvestiya. June 30, 2006. Retrieved July 5, 2007, from http://www.newizv.ru/news/2006-06-30/49279/

Osipian, A. (2008). Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme: Political Corruption of Russian Doctorates. Working paper. Retrieved June 1, 2008, from http://people.vanderbilt.edu/~ararat.osipian/

Brown, H. (2008). Russia: The World’s Richest Government. March 28, 2008. Retrieved April 8, 2008, from http://www.forbes.com/2008/03/28/russia-billionaires-duma-biz-cz_hb_0401russiapols.html

V RF ezhegodno 10 tysiach dissertatsij pishutsia za den’gi (U kogo iz chinovnikov est’ uchenye stepeni) [In the Russian Federation, every year 10 thousand dissertations are written for money (public officials who have academic degrees)]. Newsru.com. March 24, 2006. Retrieved July 5, 2007, from http://www.newsru.com/russia/24mar2006/disserts.html

Kadyrov zashchitil dissertatsiyu, osnovannuyu na “prakticheskih reshenijah” [Kadyrov defended dissertation, based on the “practical solutions”] Newsru.com. June 25, 2006. Retrieved July 5, 2007, from http://www.newsru.com/russia/25jun2006/kadyr.html

The President of Chechen Republic. Retrieved April 7, 2008, from http://chechnya.gov.ru/page.php?r=2

Bely, M. (2008). V Rossii stalo modno pokupat’ sebe orgena [In Russia, it is now in fashion to buy orders and distinctions]. News.bbc.co.uk, April 2, 2008. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/russian/russia/newsid_7324000/7324738.stm

Sovet po obshestvennym nagradam. Prodazha ordenov [The Council for Public Decorations. Sale of orders]. http://www.sovet.pkc.ru/

Klussmann, U. (2007). Duma’s Dubious Degrees: The Russian Parliament Intellectual Giants. Spiegel, November 21, 2007. Retrieved April 10, 2008, from http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,518754,00.html

Fabrike znanij – svoj OTK. V sisteme attestatsii griadut peremeny, utverzhdaet glavny ucheny sekretar’ VAK, Feliks Shamhalov [Own quality control department for the factory of knowledge. Chief Academic Secretary of VAK, Feliks Shamhalov, states that changes are coming to the system of attestation]. Interview with the Senior Academic Secretary of VAK, Feliks Shamhalov. Rossijskaja gazeta, federal issue 4618, March 21, 2008.

VAK vvodit strogie mery dlia soiskatelei uchenyh stepenei [VAK introduces strict measures for those seeking doctoral degrees]. Newsru.com. June 30, 2006. Retrieved July 5, 2007, from http://www.newsru.com/russia/30jun2006/vak.html

Yurevitch, A. (2006). Ostepenennye chuzhaki [Degree-holding aliens]. Nezavisimaya gazeta, January 25, 2006. Retrieved October 1, 2006, from http://ww.ng.ru/printed/64791

Valery Karpov stal kandidatom nauk [Valery Karpov became Candidate Sciences]. Newsru.com. June 17, 2002. Retrieved July 5, 2007, from http://www.newsru.com/sport/17jun2002/074988963.html

Compayre, G. (1893). Abelard and the Origin and Early History of Universities. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, pp. 283-284.

V Rossii v 2003 godu roditeli potratili 26,5 milliarda rublej na obrazovanie svoih detej [In Russia in 2003 parents have paid 26,5 billion rubles in bribes for their children’s education]. Newsru.com, June 24, 2004. Retrieved June 24, 2004, from www.newsru.com/russia/24jun2004/vzytki.html

Riggs, L. (1986). The Issues of Nobility and Identity in Dom Juan and Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, The French Review, 59(3), pp. 399-409.

Anderson, M. (1992). Impostors in the Temple: American Intellectuals Are Destroying Our Universities and Cheating Our Students of Their Future. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Vitzthum, T. (2008). Korruption: Gutes Geschäft mit gekauften Doktortiteln. Die Welt, March 12, 2008. Retrieved March 14, 2008, from http://www.welt.de/politik/article1792387/Gutes_Geschaeft_mit_gekauften_Doktortiteln.html

Vitzthum, T. (2008). Pribyl’ny biznes s kuplennoi dissertatsiei [Profitable business with a purchased dissertation]. Inopressa.ru, March 13, 2008. Retrieved March 14, 2008, from http://www.inopressa.ru/welt/2008/03/13/16:27:20/dissertation

V Germanii dissertatsii tozhe pokupajutsia – kak i v Rossii [In Germany, dissertations can also be purchased, as in Russia]. Newsru.com, March 13, 2007. Retrieved March 14, 2008, from http://www.newsru.com/world/13mar2008/disser.html

Yurevitch, A. (2005). Insittutsionalizatsiya moshennichestva [Institutionalization of fraud]. Nezavisimaya gazeta, November 11, 2005. Retrieved October 1, 2006, from http://ww.ng.ru/printed/62963

Yurevitch, A. (2005). Polufal’shivaya nauka [Semi-fake sciences]. Nezavisimaya gazeta, September 28, 2005. Retrieved October 1, 2006, from http://ww.ng.ru/printed/61747

Morozov, V. (2008). Gigantsky akademicheski blef okonchen: Krah academii siyayushchih ordenov [A gigantic academic bluff is over: Collapse of the Academy of shiny orders]. Argumenty nedeli, 40(126), October 2, 2008. Retrieved October 9, 2008, from http://www.argumenti.ru/publications/8048

Klussmann, U. (2007). Duma’s Dubious Degrees: The Russian Parliament Intellectual Giants. Spiegel, November 21, 2007. Retrieved April 10, 2008, from http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,518754,00.html

Heyneman, S., Anderson, K, & Nuraliyeva, N. (2008). The Cost of Corruption in Higher Education, Comparative Education Review, 52(1), pp. 1-27; p. 2.