Nation's universities smeared by corruption By Olga Kryzhanovska , Kyiv Post Staff Writer Anton Berezhnenko, a second-year chemistry major at the National Technical University, fears that he might not pass the upcoming exam session at the end of the month. His grades this semester were not good, he says, because he was working three jobs to support himself. Now Berezhnenko hopes that the money he has earned will buy him a way out of his predicament. But there are no rules here. Many professors don t accept bribes at all.
Some professors take money just from, say, four people from the course.
Using bribes to make the grade has apparently become a common practice at many of Kyiv s large universities, colleges and institutes. Faced with a lack of state financing, more and more students find they must work to support themselves, leaving them little time to study. Other students, fearing mandatory military service, offer cash to teachers in a desperate attempt to avoid being expelled and subsequently drafted into Ukraine s poorly funded, abusive army. On top of that, many professors, who have money woes of their own, find it hard to resist the extra cash offered by students and take a few bucks to bump up a score. Throw in cultural acceptance of low-level corruption dating back to Soviet times, and it all adds up to an educational system slipping into mediocrity.