Case study on anti-corruption education programs implemented by the Modern Didactics Centre in 2002–2008, Princeton University (USA), 2015
In February 2015, Mayja Gainer, a researcher at Princeton University (USA) and the Innovations for Successful Societies research program, visited the Modern Didactics Centre. The purpose of her visit was to prepare a case study on the Centre’s anti-corruption education programmes implemented between 2002 and 2008. The researcher met and spoke with Center staff, former representatives of Transparency International Lithuania, Special Investigation Service officers, teachers and students, and municipal representatives who participated in the implementation of the program.
Sociological survey “Corruption at Lithuania Higher Schools: Views, Problems and Ways of Solution”, 2004
The survey was performed under the project “Preventing Corruption through Education, Information and Consciousness-raising. Component I – Preparation of the Anti-corruption Education Course for Higher Schools”. The survey was focused mainly on a qualitative examination of corruption in higher education. Collected data leads to a better understand of teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards corruption and provides better opportunities for its prevention. Survey involved 90 teachers from ten high schools, 20 teachers and 25 students of the twenty-five high schools were interviewed.The study was conducted by sociologist Olga Guseva.
Several circumstances encourage a closer look at corruption in universities. First of all, it is a fact that higher education institutions (hereinafter referred to as HEIs), as educational institutions, must, among other functions, strengthen the moral values and relevant social skills of students, rather than the opposite – to form deviant, socially harmful behavior. Quantitative studies conducted in 2004 show that such behavior, specifically the involvement of students in corruption, is quite widespread. Secondly, the Ministry of Education and Science trains (or at least should train) the country’s most highly qualified specialists, who later occupy positions of significance in public life. If corruption is widespread in higher education, it is difficult to expect that the state will have competent, ethically “clean” specialists. For example, it is difficult to expect that a medical student who has obtained a diploma with the help of bribes will be able to treat people properly, or that such a teacher will be able to educate students in morality.
Quantitative studies clearly show the spread of corruption in higher education institutions. In order to prevent this phenomenon, it is necessary to analyze the subjective meanings of members of the academic community. The presented study is focused mainly on the qualitative analysis of corruption in higher education institutions. The collected data allows for a better understanding of the attitudes and positions of teachers and students towards corruption, as well as for a more accurate prediction of prevention possibilities.