Due to new reforms, high school graduates applying to college will take a standardized assessment exam for universities in order to resolve the issues of corruption and select the best-suited students. According to the Transnational Crime and Corruption Center, American students applying to Tbilisi State University faced fees from USD 5 000 to 15 000 for entrance-exam preparation classes taught by the same professors administering the tests.

Despite a recent report from the government indicated that bribes paid in state universities total as much as 20 million lari ($10.9 million) per year, the plans to introduce national tests for university admission to make a more "fair" system with equal access and less corruption might be put on the shelves due to budget problems. According to Tbilisi State University only 20 % of the university's students managed to pass the school's entrance exams without paying bribes.

In Georgia, the Soviet legacy and the later collapse of state institutions produced an educational system plagued by corruption, nepotism, centralization and lack of teachers and professors. In addition, during the 90's, private low-quality schools with titles like "university" and "institute" sprang up. Controversies have been raised after colleges and universities have been closed or merged, and thousands of academic and administrative positions abolished.

Since his election in 2004, the Georgian president has set about reforming the endemically corrupt university system through drastic, but effective, measures. Reforms targeted both the admissions process as well as the quality of higher education itself.