Do Anti-Corruption Educational Campaigns Reach Students? Some Evidence from Russia and Ukraine

Abstract

Abstract. The authors investigate the effect of anti-corruption educational materials -an informational folder with materials designed by Transparency International -on the willingness of students to participate in an anti-corruption campaign and their general judgment about corruption in two cities in Russia and Ukraine by conducting experiments. During a survey of 350 students in Khabarovsk, Russia, and 600 students in Lviv, Ukraine, young people were randomly exposed to either a folder with information about the negative effects of corruption in general and in the higher education system in particular (treatment group), or a folder with information irrelevant to corruption (control group). The effects were statistically significant in the total sample in Khabarovsk and only in some social groups in Lviv. The results might be interesting not only for scholars, but also for policy makers and practitioners.

Corruption, the Lack of Academic Integrity and Other Ethical Issues in Higher Education: What Can Be Done Within the Bologna Process?

“…Some scholars often do not dare to call it "corruption" and mitigate this small "sin" by referring to it as "student dishonesty", "academic dishonesty", "cheating", or just simply "plagiarism" (s. e.g. Curtis et al 2013;Golunov 2014;Curtis and Vardanega 2016;Chapman and Linder 2016;Denisova-Schmidt 2016a;Denisova-Schmidt et al 2016a). The challenges of defining "corruption" might also be explained by the fact that corruption is a crime.…”

Beg, borrow, or steal: determinants of student academic misconduct in Ukrainian higher education

“…An assumption is often made that corrupt exchanges are driven by academics, and the students are victimised as a result. Evidence suggests that the initiators of bribes may be lecturers, either indirectly or directly (Denisova-Schmidt, Huber and Leontyeva, 2016a). In many instances, however, the initiators of misconduct in general and bribes more specifically are the students themselves.…”

“…Perceptions of the issue: Previous research has shown that people who believe that everyone around them is corrupt are more prone to corruption and cheating (John, Loewenstein, Rick, 2014;Corbacho et al 2016, Denisova-Schmidt, Huber Prytula, 2015and Denisova-Schmidt, Huber and Leontyeva, 2016a. A study by Shaw, Katsaiti and Pecoraro (2015) found that perceptions of the corruption of others has had a positive impact on personal involvement of students in Ukraine.…”

“…As a result, about 80% of young Ukrainians go to universities and almost all of them get their degree on time (Bastedo et. al., 2009;Denisova-Schmidt, Huber and Leontyeva, 2016a). Not all of them are ready to study on such a high level, however, and corruption is one of the ways for them to survive the academic pressures.…”

Combining experimental evidence with machine learning to assess anti-corruption educational campaigns among Russian university students

“…Also, Corbacho et al (2016) find for an information experiment in Costa Rica that individuals who believe that everyone around them is corrupt and/or who have personal experience with corruption are more prone to corruption. Finally, our paper is related to Denisova-Schmidt et al (2015) and Denisova-Schmidt et al (2016), which investigate the effectiveness of an anti-corruption folder developed by Transparency International among students in Lviv, Ukraine and Khabarovsk, Russia, respectively. We improve upon these previous studies by considering more and different interventions (both brochures and videos), using a larger sample, and more thoroughly investigating effect heterogeneity.…”