Ararat Osipian with Nobel Laureate Mohammad Yunus, May 2007

Faculty Misconduct, Corruption, and Doctoral Degree Fraud in Ukraine — Ararat Osipian (9.13.18) CREECA at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Podcast

Then there is the corruption. A 2015 USAID report found that Ukrainian universities were “rife” with it, and that perception is endorsed by Ararat Osipian, an economist who specialises in academic corruption. “There was outright bribery and fake degrees; you could purchase your master’s thesis or your PhD dissertation,” explains Osipian, who is a fellow of the New Europe College Institute for Advanced Study in Bucharest but, under martial law, is unable to leave Ukraine and, having been displaced from the eastern city of Kramatorsk, now lives in a temporary shelter further west – “a refugee in my own country”. But academic corruption is no surprise in a country that ranked 104th out of 180 countries in Transparency International’s 2023 Corruption Perceptions Index, which ranks countries on their transparency. “If everything around is corrupt, then higher education is also corrupt. It’s not an oasis,” Osipian says. In 2021, the World Bank announced a $200 million investment to “support the Government of Ukraine’s efforts to strengthen efficiency, quality and transparency of the country’s higher education system”. The project will run until the end of 2026, but, Osipian points out, almost $100 million was redirected from the budget to cover academic and social scholarships for students after the outbreak of war. With half its funding gone, he is doubtful that the project will succeed. Times Higher Education https://www.timeshighereducation.com/depth/it-time-ukraines-exiled-academics-return

Ukraine needs to increase academic mobility, the backbone of educational internationalization, but it is severely restricted due to the war. As a result, Ukraine risks transforming into one of those post-Stalinist dystopias that are hard to get to; once you are in, it is hard to get out. Despite much discussion about sanctions and restrictions, Russia’s academic ties continue to expand, while Ukraine’s academic ties become severed. Voices of Ukrainian Scholars featuring Ararat L. Osipian. The Association for Slavic, East European, & Eurasian Studies https://www.aseees.org/membership/ararat-osipian

Ironically enough, just a few hours prior to the publication of the order in the media, I sent a draft of my book to my publisher with a dedication to the National Research University Higher School of Economics for its “daring aspiration to compete with world-class universities and to become one”. My book has nothing to do with politics, but has suddenly become the subject of potential political indoctrination. University World News https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20220620142920488

Ararat L Osipian reports on “Trump University: Crime and Settlement”, alluding to the Fyodor Dostoevsky novel. There, 6,000 former students agreed to a settlement of US$25 million. These victims of an alleged scam only recovered half of their money, leading to United States President Donald Trump’s satisfied Tweet: “I settled the Trump University lawsuit for a small fraction of the potential award because as President I have to focus on our country” (19 November 2016). Osipian goes on to record the University of Phoenix settlement of US$78.5 million in a suit filed by two former administrative officers acting as whistle-blowers. This followed upon Phoenix obtaining a revenue of US$2.5 billion from the reported embezzlement of federal Pell grants, a subsidy given by the US government to students who need support to pay for college. The University of Phoenix has been the largest recipient. University World News https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20200624090044569

Nigeria’s education sector is particularly vulnerable to corruption. As corruption scholar Ararat Osipian noted in 2013, “[l]imited access to education [in Nigeria] has no doubt contributed to the use of bribes and personal connections to gain coveted places at universities, with some admissions officials reportedly working with agents to obtain bribes from students. Those who have no ability or willingness to resort to corruption face lost opportunities and unemployment." WENR World Education News and Reviewshttps://wenr.wes.org/2017/03/education-in-nigeria

There is no other way but to succeed in the fight against corruption, Ararat Osipian warned in a recent paper, "Education Corruption, Reform, and Growth: Case of Post-Soviet Russia." Saying that students today learn not only their subject matter, "but also pervasive ways and practices of corruption." The Washington Post http://russianow.washingtonpost.com/2010/08/the-cost-of-a-russian-education.php

“Your friends can buy you a doctoral degree for your birthday,” quipped Ararat L. Osipian, a scholar based in Ukraine who focused on academic corruption in the former Soviet Union for his doctorate from Vanderbilt University. Good friends, that is: The going rate for a fake degree online starts at around $1,400. The New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/23/world/europe/russia-plagiarism-among-officials.html?emc=eta1

Students who get degrees through bribery or nepotism can likely land a job with a government agency or company in their country. That’s the case in Ukraine, says Ararat Osipian, a U.S.-trained Ukrainian economist who studies educational corruption there. “We have public servants who cannot manage simple paperwork,” he says. Bright but less affluent young people often end up in menial jobs, Osipian says. “It’s a terrible waste of human capital.” Bloomberg Businessweek http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-10-01/buying-a-diploma-is-easy-if-you-can-pay-up

O acadêmico Ararat Osipian advertiu num documento recente que “a corrupção na educação corrói a coesão social, porque os estudantes não aprendem só suas matérias, mas também meios escusos e práticas de corrupção”. Gazeta RUSSA (Brazil) http://gazetarussa.com.br/articles/2010/09/13/ao_mestre_um_dinheirinho_12007.html 

169 companies offer custom-written doctoral dissertations for sale in Russia at prices ranging from the equivalent of $900 to $25,000, according to research by Ararat L. Osipian of Vanderbilt University. By one estimate, some 10,000 dissertations are written for pay each year in Russia, nearly one-third of the dissertations defended there. Advanced degrees are popular among Russian politicians. More than half of the members of the State Duma, Russia's main legislative body, hold doctoral degrees, Osipian reports. The Daily Stat. Harvard Business Review http://web.hbr.org/email/archive/dailystat.php?date=011113

 In the United Kingdom, and other countries with a private education sector, using corruptly obtained funds to pay the fees of family members at private schools or universities can be a form of money laundering, according to Ararat Osipian, a PhD candidate at the Peabody College of Education at Vanderbilt University in the United States. University World News http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20131004142900721

It's hardly news that the Russian system of academic qualification is corrupt. In 2009, Ararat Osipian, of Vanderbilt University, cited prices for fake theses, from $1,000 to $6,100 for a "full package." "Rent-seeking behavior in the Russian society is perceived as a norm," he wrote. "Public officials, bureaucrats, and civil servants attempt to transform their access to material and non-material assets into personal benefits. Educators act in a similar manner. Rectors of state higher education institutions rent out public property, including academic and non-academic facilities and land, to businesses in which they often have a share. University professors sell doctorates by abusing their monopolized function of conferring doctoral degrees."As for politicians, Osipian wrote, they can reduce the high transaction costs of defending a thesis "by exercising their influence over academics in 'friendly' dissertation boards." Chicago Tribune http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-wp-blm-russia-plagiarism-comment-b2e13c80-a5b3-11e5-8318-bd8caed8c588-20151218-story.html   Bloomberg http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-10-01/buying-a-diploma-is-easy-if-you-can-pay-up

According to Ararat Osipian, who completed a Ph.D. on academic corruption at Vanderbilt University and is now doing field work on the subject in Ukraine, between 20 percent and 30 percent of all dissertations that have been completed at Russian universities since the fall of the Soviet Union were purchased on the black market. Over the past 25 years many of these boards have become corrupt, with faculty members and academic advisers taking bribes in exchange for rubber-stamping obviously shoddy, or stolen, work, according to Osipian, who is not a member of Dissernet. “Everyone wants to get his cut,” he said. “You bought a dissertation, fine, but you still have to pay the people on the board to let this dissertation go through. At these universities, everyone needs money—they are all overworked and underpaid.” Slate http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/cover_story/2016/05 the_thriving_russian_black_market_in_dissertations_and_the_crusaders_fighting.html   Business Insider http://www.businessinsider.com/russian-elites-are-buying-black-market-dissertations-2016-5

In 2009, Ukrainian economist Dr. Ararat Osipian, reported that more than 30 percent of Ukrainian students enter colleges by paying bribes while many other students use their connections with faculty or administration stating that, “corruption increases inequalities in access to higher education, prevents future economic growth in the country, and undermines quality and credentials of academic degrees.” BORGEN Magazine http://www.borgenmagazine.com/education-ukraine-struggling-legitimacy/

Non è una novità che il sistema russo dei titoli di studio sia una tipografia sui generis. Nel 2009, Ararat Osipian, della Vanderbilt University, ha citato i prezzi delle tesi false: si parte da 1.000 dollari fino 6.100 per un “pacchetto completo”. Nella società russa “l’affitto”, è percepito come una norma. I funzionari pubblici e i burocrati cercano di trasformare i beni immateriali in vantaggi personali: i rettori degli istituti d’istruzione superiore affittano alle imprese beni pubblici, tra cui le strutture e i terreni accademici; i professori universitari “cedono” i dottorati; gli educatori vogliono “riconoscenza per orientare”. L'intraprendentehttp://www.lintraprendente.it/2016/01/la-russia-repubblica-fondata-sul-plagio/

Đó là bình luận của giáo sư Ararat Osipian - giảng viên tại Trung tâm Tội phạm khủng bố, tham nhũng xuyên quốc gia, Đại học George Mason, người đã dành thời gian từ tháng 6/2017 để thực hiện nghiên cứu thực địa về tham nhũng trong giáo dục đại học ở Moldova. Cũng như các phân khúc khác của khu vực công, giáo dục đại học ở Moldova không hoàn toàn trong sạch. Các cuộc trò chuyện về tham nhũng giáo dục đại học của giáo sư Ararat Osipian với các sinh viên, cựu sinh viên, phụ huynh và các công dân khác đã mang lại một số kết quả. Thanh Tra Vietnam http://thanhtra.com.vn/quoc-te/co-hay-khong-tham-nhung-o-cac-truong-dai-hoc-moldova_t114c26n154082

“Universities think [English] is our future, but is it really? Twenty-five years ago the same people were telling students that communism was unavoidable,” writes Ararat Osipian, associate professor of economics at Ukraine’s prestigious Bukovyna State University of Finance and Economics, and contributor to University World News. “Making unrealistic promises may be the safe option because in corrupt societies ruling regimes are not accountable to the public and thus carry no responsibility for their failures.” SI News: Independent News for International Students https://www.studyinternational.com/news/will-english-become-the-second-working-language-at-universities-in-indonesia-and-ukraine

Work in progress:

World Bank Comes to Ukraine: University Mergers, Protests, Corruption, War. Book manuscript.

Passion and love and sex and money: Sexual harassment, gender violence and corruption in universities. Book manuscript.

Books:

Journal articles:

Book chapters:

Essays:

Other publications:

Book reviews:

 

Invited talks:

 

Papers presented at the conferences:

Osipian, A. (2024). Give me your tired, your poor,… your Yukos, your yachts: Internationalization of predatory raiding. Annual Conference of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES), Boston, MA, October 2024.

Osipian, A. (2023). World Bank Comes to Ukraine: University Mergers, Protests, Corruption, and War. Annual Conference of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES), Philadelphia, PA, October 2023.

Osipian, A. (2021). Galvanizing academia: student protests and Navalny’s anti-corruption movement. Annual Conference of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES), New Orleans, LA, December 2021.

Osipian, A. (2021). Student protests and corruption in Russian universities: Does Alexei Navalny lead the youth? Annual Conference of the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE), Puerto Rico, November 2021.

Osipian, A. (2021). Mapping Student Protests in Russia: the Navalny factor. Annual Conference of the American Political Science Association (APSA), Seattle, WA, September 2021.

Osipian, A. (2021). Sextortion in Academia: Sexual harassment, corruption and extortion in post-Communist education. Annual Conference of the American Sociological Association (ASA), Chicago, IL, August 2021.

Osipian, A. (2021). Student protests and anti-corruption movement in Russia during the pre-Navalny era. Annual Conference of the American Sociological Association (ASA), Chicago, IL, August 2021.

Osipian, A. (2021). Is There Potential for Regime Change in Russia? Channeling student protests in a “right” direction. Annual Conference of the New University in Exile Consortium, New School University, New York, NY, May 2021.

Osipian, A. (2019). Let Me Write a Dissertation for You: Faculty misconduct, corruption and doctoral degree fraud in Ukraine. Annual Conference of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES), San Francisco, CA, November 2019.

Osipian, A. (2019). Economics of corruption in doctoral education in Ukraine. The 25th Annual REECAS Northwest Conference, Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies. Seattle, WA, April 2019.

Osipian, A. (2019). Micro-level cost-benefit approach to doctoral degree fraud in Ukraine. Annual Conference of the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES), San Francisco, CA, April 2019.

Osipian, A. (2013). A Repressive Regime with Handy Courts: Political Persecution and Corruption in Ukraine. Annual Conference of the Law & Society Association (LSA), Boston, MA, May 2013.

Osipian, A. (2013). Technological Failure as a Moving Force: Selectivity and Corruption in Access to Higher Education in the Russian Federation. Annual Conference of the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES), New Orleans, LA, March 2013.

Osipian, A. (2012). From Khodorkovsky to Hermitage Capital: Building the New System of Property Rights in Transition Economies. Annual Conference of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES), New Orleans, LA, November 2012.

Osipian, A. (2012). Testing Integrity with Standardized Tests: Corruption and Reform in Higher Education in Central Asia. Annual Conference of the Central Eurasian Studies Society (CESS), Bloomington, IN, October, 2012.

Osipian, A. (2011). Information Asymmetry, Uncertainty, and Risk Aversion: Prices and Pricing on the Dissertations for Sale Market. Annual Conference of the American Sociological Association (ASA), Las Vegas, NV, August 2011.

Osipian, A. (2011). New Challenges for Russian Universities: Corruption, Politicization, and Student Activism. Annual Conference of the American Sociological Association (ASA), Las Vegas, NV, August 2011.

Osipian, A. (2010). Corruption in Doctoral Education in Transition Economies: The Dissertations Market. Annual Conference of the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE), Indianapolis, IN, November, 2010.

Osipian, A. (2010). Corporate Raiding Russian Style: Hostile Takeovers via Corruption and Fraud. Annual Conference of the American Political Science Association (APSA), Washington, DC, September 2010.

Osipian, A. (2010). How to Buy a Doctoral Degree? An Inquiry into the Dissertations for Sale Market. Annual Conference of the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES), Chicago, IL, March, 2010.

Osipian, A. (2009). Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme: Political Corruption of Russian Doctorates. Annual Conference of the American Sociological Association (ASA), San Francisco, CA, August 2009.

Osipian, A. (2009). Corrupt Organizational Hierarchies in the Former Soviet Bloc. Annual Conference of the American Sociological Association (ASA), San Francisco, CA, August 2009.

Osipian, A. (2008). Modeling Educators’ Misconduct with Cellular Automata. Annual Conference of the American Sociological Association (ASA), Boston, MA, August, 2008.

Osipian, A. (2007). Corruption Hierarchies in Education in Developing and Transition Societies. Annual Conference of the University Council for Education Administration (UCEA), Alexandria, VA, November, 2007.

Osipian, A. (2007). Replacing University Entry Examinations with Standardized Tests in Russia: Will It Reduce Corruption? Annual Conference of the University Council for Education Administration (UCEA), Alexandria, VA, November, 2007.

Osipian, A. (2007). Higher Education Corruption in the World Media: Prevalence, Patterns, and Forms. Annual Conference of the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE), Louisville, KY, November, 2007.

Osipian, A. (2007). “Feed from the Service”: Corruption and Coercion in the State—University Relations. Annual Conference of the Central Eurasian Studies Society (CESS), University of Washington, Seattle, WA, October, 2007.

Osipian, A. (2007). Corruption and Reform of Russian Higher Education. Annual Conference of the American Sociological Association (ASA), NYC, August, 2007.

Osipian, A. (2007). Graft in Academia: International Perspectives on Corruption in Higher Education. Conference “Beyond Borders: Global Change and Education in Action”. New York University, NYC, March, 2007.

Osipian, A. (2007). Corruption in Secondary and Higher Education: Conceptual Approaches and Investigative Techniques. Annual Conference of the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES), University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD, February, 2007.

Osipian, A. (2007). Human Capital – Economic Growth Nexus in the Former Soviet Bloc. Annual Conference of the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES), University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD, February, 2007.

Osipian, A. (2006). Corruption in Higher Education in Organizational Perspective: Case of the Former Soviet Bloc. Annual Conference of the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES), University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI, March, 2006.

Osipian, A. (2005). Politicized University: Lessons from the Orange Revolution in Ukraine. Annual Conference of the American Sociological Association (ASA), Philadelphia, PA, August, 2005.

Osipian, A. (2005). Corruption and Coercion: University Autonomy versus State Control. Annual Conference of the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES), Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, March, 2005.

Osipian, A. (2005). Anatomy of Corruption: Clinical Investigation of the Project of Institutional Partnership. Research Conference and International Forum. Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, February, 2005.

Osipian, A. (2004). Corruption as a Legacy of the Medieval University. Annual Conference of the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE), Kansas City, November 2004.

Osipian, A. (2004). Facilitating Economic Development through the Reform of Economic Instruction. International Conference “75 Years of Development Research.” Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, May, 2004.

Osipian, A. (2004). Corruption in Higher Education: Who, Whom, How, and How Much. Research Conference and International Forum. Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, February, 2004.

Osipian, A. (2003). Corruption in Higher Education: Ethics and Conflict in International Perspective. National Conference of the National Association of the Graduate and Professional Students (NAGPS). Washington, DC, November, 2003.

Osipian, A. (2003). Vouchers for Higher Education in Russia: What to Expect and How to Measure. Research Conference and International Forum. Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, February, 2003.

Osipian, A. (2002). International Exchange in Higher Education: Economics and Politics. Graduate Program in Economic Development Alumni Conference. Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, December 2002.

Osipian, A. (2002). International Reform in Higher Education Policy: Economic Issues. NorthEast Conference for Graduate/Professional Students. Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, April 2002.

Osipian, A. (2002). International Reform in Higher Education Policy: Economic Issues. Southeast Conference for Graduate/Professional Students. Georgia Southern University, Savannah, GA, April 2002.