Buying your Way into Heaven (Education and Corruption in International Perspective)

Education is commonly thought to be a haven for the young. No matter how unstable the polity, no matter how dismal the prospects for the economy, education investments are often treated as sacrosanct. This is one reason for the popularity of education as part of foreign aid. Who could object to providing more opportunity for young people to study? Recently however, it has been discovered that education systems can be as corrupt as other parts of government and the economy; and that values of fairness and impartiality, once thought to be universal characteristics of education systems, can be supplanted by the interests of specific individuals, families and ethnic groups. Education corruption has now been found in all regions of the world, but it manifests itself in different ways. How do these differ from one region to another? What should be done to minimize education corruption? And what should be done to protect universities and employers in areas situated where there is little corruption from the products of those parts of the world where education corruption is the norm. This book will explain the meaning of education corruption and how it works; it will provide illustrations from Asia, Africa, Southeastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, and it will propose actions and policies on the part of regional and international agencies to counter-act what is now likely to become a new and unexpected global crisis.