Corruption in Russia's universities is on the rise with an increasing number of people buying degrees in everything from engineering to medicine, according to Russian media.
The Moscow Times reports that some Russians are forgoing university and simply buying a diploma instead, giving them instant access to the elite graduate job market. The practice is made possible by the fact that the diplomas of both public and private sector workers are rarely verified, it says.
The newspaper refers to a recent report on Russia’s NTV television station in which 70 engineers working at an airplane factory in eastern Russia were found to have obtained fake engineering degrees from a local technical college. The government-owned factory makes both fighter jets and passenger aircraft.
The two most popular fake diplomas are legal degrees and medical degrees, according to another report by the Russian newspaper Izvestia.
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