Kazakhstan
US Academic Held on Money Smuggling Charges
Victor A. Skormin, a professor of electrical engineering at the State University of New York at Binghamton [1], was held in detention at an airport and waited weeks for a court hearing on charges that he attempted to smuggle approximately US$16,000 out of the country. The Kazakh-born academic was held for not declaring money, earned as an honorarium, he was holding in cash while trying to return to the United States, apparently unaware the amount exceeded the customs limit.
Mr. Skormin has been director of the Center for Advanced Information Technologies at SUNY-Binghamton since 1986. For a decade, he has been traveling to Kazakhstan as a guest lecturer. In late September, the day before he was supposed to depart from his latest visit, Mr. Skormin exchanged the money he had been paid for his lectures at two universities, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University [2] and L.N. Gumilev Eurasian University, into dollars.
On trying to leave the country, Mr. Skormin was detained in the Astana airport with $14,221 in cash. The immigration service confiscated the professor’s money, held him on suspicion of currency smuggling, and refused to allow him to exit the country until a court decided his case. A month later he was found guilty and fined $2,000 for smuggling currency.
Kazakh colleagues, interviewed by the Chronicle of Higher Education, expressed embarrassment and concern that the case might cause problems for future exchange programs established with American universities through contacts of Mr. Skormin.
– The Chronicle of Higher Education [3]
November 4, 2008
Russia
Elite Network of Universities Under Consideration
Russian lawmakers are considering Education Ministry [4] plans to create a network of new and elite federal institutions that would (hopefully) rank high in international rankings. The plan passed the first reading in the Russian parliament and, if passed, will target resources on specialized research universities, while also encouraging lifelong vocational learning. The ‘elite’ network of universities would receive extra funds from the state budget to build state-of-the-art information systems and boost faculty ranks.
“The network of new universities is intended [to address] strategic problems of innovative development,” Education Minister Andrei Fursenko told members of the Russian parliament, the State Duma.
Lifelong learning is also central to Fursenko’s plans, which would see the creation of specialized innovation centers and lifelong training schemes to ensure Russian graduates had opportunities to update their skills throughout their careers. A network of new quality assurance organizations for state, private and flexible education courses also form an integral part of the plan.
At the university level, the government has already created two federal universities as a pilot project. The universities were established through mergers of existing state institutions last year in Rostov-on-Don, southern Russia, and in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk. The new universities are developing the model that would see all federal universities offering bachelors and masters programs in close association with business and scientific research centers. They will also be encouraged to develop close links with international universities, the Education Ministry says.
– World university News [5]
October 26, 2008
Case of Professor with Fake Credentials Earning $37 Million Places Spotlight on Persistent Problem of Corruption Within Education System
A professor in the Russian province of Samara earned an incredible US$37 million teaching law at seven schools in three years. Even more incredible, he landed his positions on the back of fake diplomas he bought for approximately $2,000. Not a bad return on investment.
Samara prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into the professor, Oleg Shepil, on suspicion of large-scale fraud. The 48-year-old law graduate from the Samara Economics Academy [6], is arguing that the case is unwarranted because he bought the diplomas only to raise his prestige in the eyes of colleagues, not for the money, according to officials at the Samara Regional Prosecutor’s Office.
More important than the tabloid-like headline is the very real issue of corruption in Russian higher education, the ease of attaining fake diplomas and the quality of education that students are receiving.
The Moscow Times reports that “President Dmitry Medvedev has declared war on corruption in order to protect businesses from corrupt officials and make judges independent. But Georgy Satarov, head of the anti-corruption Indem think tank, said “everyday corruption” is the worst kind, when students pay professors for good grades and people pay doctors for treatment.”
As to the fake master’s and doctorate degrees in question, they were bought in 2004 after Shepil responded to an advertisement he saw on a Moscow subway station. The doctorate was issued on the official paper of the state grading department which had been stolen. Cheaper degrees are reportedly available for $200 to $300. They can be ordered in Moscow pedestrian underpasses from people holding signs saying “diplomy.” The documents they provide are printed on ordinary paper with no watermark.
Those who want a more authentic-looking degree have to pay more. Web sites offer diplomas printed on the official paper of Goznak, the government agency that also produces banknotes and coins, and they come complete with original typesetting, stamps and professors’ signatures, which only an expert could identify as fake. The only difference between the fake and original diplomas is that the fake ones are not recorded in the official state registry. Shepil’s diplomas were not on this list.
Shepil taught law at seven institutes on the basis of the fake law diplomas from August 2004 to September last year, and earned approximately 1 billion rubles. Most of his money appears to have been made in bribes paid by students looking for better grades.
– The Moscow Times [7]
October 31, 2008
Turkmenistan
Students Warned Against Contacts with U.S. Organizations
University students in Turkmenistan told RFE/RL’s Turkmen Service that they have been warned by officials at their schools that they should not visit American organizations working in Turkmenistan, such as the Public Affairs Office at the U.S. Embassy, the U.S.-sponsored American Center, the International Research and Exchanges Board [8] (IREX), and others.
Secondary-school students are reportedly discouraged from applying to FLEX, a U.S. exchange program organized by the American Center. University officials are also refusing to provide school transcripts in English for students who want to do postgraduate studies in the United States.
– RFE/RL [9]
November 11, 2008