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The level of corruption in Russian universities is steadily growing despite the efforts of local authorities to eradicate it. According to rough estimates, bribes paid for admission to Russian universities in 2009 totalled $1 billion. This is 40% more than in 2007, with the average bribe rocketing to five times higher in just the last two years.

An academic integrity framework will be introduced by the Higher Education Ministry to strengthen the integrity of academics, particularly lecturers, reports the national news agency Bernama.

Colleges, universities and other academic organizations received just shy of $2 billion in grants directed to them by individual members of Congress in the 2010 fiscal year, an Inside Higher Ed analysis shows. Earmarks are commonly derided as "pork barrel spending" because they are seen as attempts by legislators to keep their constituents happy (and voting for them).

The University of Tokyo will overhaul its thesis examination process and throw the book at anyone found to have plagiarized other people's work, according to the university President. The tighter screening and tougher penalties come after the university last month effectively dismissed a Turkish assistant professor and revoked his doctorate after finding he had falsified his academic credentials and plagiarized major portions of his doctoral thesis.

Universities are failing to crack down on plagiarism despite an unprecedented education ministry circular sent to them a year ago making them responsible for investigating and dealing with rampant cheating.

Compared to boys, girls are more exposed to corrupt practices, especially girls within the 15-19 age group. Eradicating the phenomenon through the increase of public awareness and the creation of units to fight corruption in schools is the challenge facing educational authorities.

The government has appointed a task force to create a national database of academic qualifications to ensure confidentiality, authenticity, online verification and easy retrieval of degrees.

Education policy and reform plans of the government administration are focusing on two key words: autonomy and competition. Now, these two words are rare commodities in the education sector, which is currently engulfed in a series of corruption scandals, well illustrated by the former top educator of Seoul.