Tackling Corruption in Higher Education Finding solutions through - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Finding solutions through youth engagement

Budapest, 1st October 2013

Nguyen Thi Kieu Vien Coordinator, The Global Transparency Education Network (GTEN)

Tackling Corruption in Higher Education

Overview:

• Corruption in higher education: What are we

talking about?

• Why do we need to engage youth?
• Two examples from Romania and Lithuania
• Some observations and conclusions

When talking about corruption in higher education, experts, amongst other things, refer to :

• Institutional corruption:
• Financial fraud
• Illegal procurement of goods and services
• Tax avoidance
• Individual corruption:
• Cheating on examination
• Plagiarisms
• Falsification of research data and results

(Global Corruption Report: Education)

But then, why do we need to engage youth?

• Young people tend to be more exposed to bribery, more

vulnerable to corruption (TI, 2009)

• 27% of people aged under 30 paid a bribe in the last 12 months

worldwide (TI GCB, 2013)

• A fifth of the world’s population is between 15-24 (TI, 2009)
• 87% of the population in developing countries is estimated

under 25 beyond 2015 (Beyond 2015, 2013)

Why engaging youth (Cont)?

• Students have to pay a bribe to be admitted to a particular

university or programme According to a survey conducted in Bosnia Herzegovina:

• More than 50% of the students pointed to corruption as the

single most important problem facing the higher education

• A half stated that they themselves would cheat in exams if they

believed they would not be caught

• But while being victims and enforcers of corruption, many

youth can also act as change-agents as they have the potential to stop corruption (TI , 2009, 2013, GCR: Education)

Two Examples of “Tackling corruption in higher education by engaging youth “

• Example 1: Ranking University Governance in Romania

(A documented case, GCR: Education)

• Example 2: Mobilization of university students to adopt Integrity

Pledges: “ I promise not to cheat in this exam!” (An on-going initiative, TI Lithuania)

Ranking University governance in Romania

Context: Culture of corruption in higher education has been pervasive: in 2012, 3 ministers, a prime minister and the general prosecutor of Romania have been accused of plagiarism; cheating for getting a decree persists without any consequences. Response: A coalition of stakeholders comprised of students and teachers’ professional associations and education journalists, proposed a ranking of integrity in universities by naming (shaming), encouraging and disseminating good practices.

Ranking University governance in Romania

Approach:

• A questionnaire covering 4 aspects of governance is used to

assess each university (Transparency and responsiveness, Academic Integrity, Governance quality, and financial management)

• Students were mobilized to be a part of the evaluation team

composed of all volunteer evaluators (faculty members and students)

• This exercise was undertaken two years in a row (2009-2010) to

allow Universities to improve their performance

Ranking University governance in Romania

Impacts:

• Immediate improvement in universities’ transparency:
• Over a quarter of universities now publish all procurement expenses on their

website despite the absence of a law;

• In the 2nd year (2010) more than a third of universities improved their scores in

this category; 1 university hired a Deputy Dean “For transparency”

• Reformers had more courage to demand change: Groups “for a

clean university” comprised of students, academics, civil society, and private sector, sprang up across the country!

Ranking University governance in Romania

Lessons learned:

• Coalition (multi-stakeholders) approach works: Universities

would never have cooperated with an assessment by one NGO

• The role played by students was important: as a part of

evaluation team, they were successfully mobilized in the process of improving transparency of their education system

Integrity Pledge: “I Promise not to cheat in this exam”!

Project Objective: Strengthening academic integrity amongst university students through changing the current practice of cheating in exams by introducing the Integrity Pledge Based on the grounded premise that: Students who cheat in high school and/or college are more likely to engage in corruption at work (Sims 1993, Nonis and Swift 2001, Lawson 2004, Graves 2008) AND Students who sign integrity pledges before every major exam/assessment are less likely to cheat. (McCabe and Pavela 2010)

Integrity Pledge: “I promise not to cheat in this exam”!

Context: Lithuanian National Union of Students checked in 2013:

• 60% of students believe cheating is widespread
• 50% say students plagiarize
• 33% say students submit works from paper-mills
• 24% come up with bogus citations to make a point

Integrity Pledge: “I Promise not to cheat in this exam”!

Response:

• A clear statement of values supporting academic integrity
• Proper formulation and continuous revision of exam tasks
• Integrity pledges to be signed before every examination

Implementation Approach:

• National campaign on awareness raising targeting students and university members;
• Lobbying Lithuanian National Union of Students and other national bodies for officially

introducing the suggested Integrity Pledge

• Combined effort to push the initiative together with students.

Expected results:

• Short term: In school year 2013, students in 5 universities will voluntarily sign Integrity

Pledge

• Long term: Universities include Integrity Pledge in their academic regulations.

Integrity Pledge: “I Promise not to cheat in this exam”!

Some observations and conclusions

• Tackling corruption in higher education does not presume an easy

answer

• Youth can and should be further engaged in finding solutions to both

“institutional” as well as “individual” corruption in higher education

• Documented successes (e.g. Romania case) should be widely shared,

discussed and considered for possible adaptation to similar contexts

• Innovative approach (e.g. students’ commitment not to cheat in

exams) is a good starting point

• Sharing and learning of successes and challenges of all these have

important implications for the future of universities, individual students and anti-corruption activists and NGOs

Interested to know more and stay in touch?

• Email:

Vien Nguyen- Coordinator The Global Transparency Education Network (GTEN) kieuvien@towardstransparency.vn

• Join GTEN facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1377769019111082/