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| January/February 2005 | Volume
18, Issue 1 |
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PRACTICAL
INFORMATION REGIONAL
NEWS FEATURE
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Regional
News
Russia & The Commonwealth of Independent States
Belarus Regime Further Suppresses Academic Autonomy The action is seen as an attempt to suppress political dissent, echoing similar practices in the former Soviet Union. The subordination of Belarus’ validating body, the Higher Attestation Committee (VAK) to the President’s office would seem to re-enforce this idea. Recently VAK has assessed degree dissertations for political correctness and there have already been a number of incidents of blatant suppression and censorship. These include the dismissal of a PhD student for her choice of dissertation, the life and times of a Belarusian military revolutionary. Late last year this exercise in conformity was extended when the Belarusian Education Ministry criticized the level of teaching of state ideology in higher education. A press release complained of “insincerity” in lectures and a lack of knowledge of Belarus’ basic political, social and economic identity (see March/April issue of WENR). — The Belarusian Review Kazakhstan Mass Student Strike Avoided as Education Minister Dismissed Under the 1999 agreement students were granted access to interest-free loans, sufficient to pay for their education and to be paid back within 15 years of graduation. A 2003 amendment allowed for an increase in fees and interest, but this, students were told, would not apply to those who had availed of the initial scheme. In early November Minister Kulekeev reneged on the agreement, informing them that they too would be subject to the increase. The student reaction was to hold protests across the country. In late November they told the government it had one week to provide a solution before a strike would be called on December 4, forcing the President to fire his education minister and his deputy. — Institute for War and Peace Reporting Russia New Sino-Russian University to be Built The university is slated to offer studies in languages, commerce, trade and tourism. The first courses will be offered in 2006 as the completion of construction permits. — People’s Daily Online Ukraine Private Universities and Academic Integrity Interviews were conducted in spring 2004 with 43 rectors, vice rectors and administrators at five private universities located in Lviv, Odessa, Kharkiv, Donetsk and Kyiv. Concerning licensure and accreditation, it was generally agreed that some form of bribery was necessary for a successful outcome. Despite a small groundswell of opposition to the system among some education leaders, the culture of corruption is so deeply ingrained within the system that licensure and accreditation of a new private university will in no way become reality in the absence of some form of bribe. Exploring the situation internally, 77 faculty and 239 students at the same five private universities were interviewed regarding their own personal experiences with academic corruption, ranging from students bribing their way through the admissions process to professors requiring students to purchase their books and provide proof of the purchase. Over 90 percent of students and 95 percent of faculty reported that they had neither experienced nor knew of situations in which bribes were used to gain favorable examination results. Similar figures were reported for incidences of “petty corruption” such as professors requiring a student to provide proof that they had purchased their books. The authors of the study conclude that while they are aware that the institutions they surveyed clearly seek to be corruption-free, the data suggests that they have been able to foster such an atmosphere in the face of norms deeply ingrained and largely accepted within the Ukrainian higher education system. Furthermore, if academic integrity is made the fundamental building block of institutional culture then private universities can create a climate that can begin the process of reversing the harmful reputation that corruption has cast on higher education systems within the former Soviet Union. — International Higher Education Agreement Signed with Vietnam on Mutual Recognition of Degrees — Voice of Vietnam
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President Alyaksandr Lukashenka has announced a new presidential decree, ruling that lecturers and teachers who engage in “behavior incompatible with their professional activity” can be stripped of their qualifications and consequently their jobs. 
