Seven highereducation institutions have launched an information campaign entitled “Zero tolerance towards corruption in universities” to reduce the phenomenon through internal integrity promotion mechanisms. Minister of Education Dan Perciun welcomed the decision of university managers. “Having a quality assurance mechanism, the universities can guarantee the quality of studies and increase confidence among young people that they can get good university studies here, at home,” IPN quoted the official as saying.
Most students interviewed in a study conducted in February-March this year believe that corruption acts in the educational process in universities are very serious, as is sexual harassment of students by teachers. Regarding case reporting, 56% of the surveyed students consider that if they report a case of sexual harassment, the guilty persons will be punished accordingly, while in corruption cases only 42% of the respondents have this certainty.
Some 82% of the students said that they would report to responsible institutions or individuals if they witnessed a case of sexual harassment, while only 52% would react in a similar way in a case of corruption. Also, 75% of the students know where to report a case of sexual harassment, compared to 70% who know who to turn to when they are faced with a corruption case.
Based on the study’s findings, the universities involved in the campaign will approve anticorruption plans with concrete measures to prevent this phenomenon. These include the adoption of internal mechanisms for reporting such illegalities and external monitoring at exams, etc. The Ministry will repeat the study in 12 months, will purchase national anti-plagiarism software, will correlate the level of funding of universities with the efforts made to ensure integrity.
Seven institutions kick off campaign against corruption in universities
