Education Against Corruption
Transparency International B&H received reports of a great number of "possible" corruption cases in higher education, on its phone-line 0800-55555.
In June of this year, Transparency International B&H conducted a survey on the perceptions of corruption with the students of Banja Luka University. The survey was conducted in cooperation with the first year students of the Faculty of Law, on a representative sample of 299 students from all faculties at the University. The results of the survey demonstrate that 63% of the students belive that corruption is very much present in the University. In their view, the most common forms of corruption are bribery in the enrollment process, the nepotism during examinations, as well as the forcing of students to purchase obligatory literature and textbooks. Full 11.4% of the polled students were directly involved with corruption, while more than a half (56.5%) heard about corruption cases from their colleagues. The most alarming finding is that 42.1% of the students wouldn't take any action if bribe was asked from them, 16.4% would report the case to Transparency International, 12.4% would report the case to the competent Government Ministry, 11.7% would go to the media, 6% would report it to the Students Association, 5.7% to the Deans Office, only 3.7% would call the Police, and 2% would actually pay the bribe. Another cause of concern is the fact that more than a half of the polled students (53.2%) would take no action if they learned about concrete case of corruption at the University. None of the faculties received positive marks regarding corruption, and the survey shows that the Faculties of Medicine, Engineering and Law are the most corrupt. The Rector of the Banja Luka University said that he has no information on classic cases of corruption and bribery. He emphasized that the higher education reforms should provide the instruments for prevention of such phenomena. Because of this, Transparency International B&H will take a more active approach to the problem of corruption in secondary and higher education and will create and implement long-term projects in that field. |
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