KIEV — When you go after bribe takers in Ukraine, they will fight back.
I know because I am being taken to court for an op-ed I wrote for POLITICO about the corruption of my country’s higher education system. After I described how I had paid a $200 bribe to my university professor in order to get him to consider my dissertation, he accused me of libel and of making “an attack on his honor and dignity.”
Losing this case will be a loss for education reform and freedom of speech. If journalists are punished for talking about corruption, then the rest of society has even less of a voice. But, of course, the odds are stacked against me.
I began my article by confessing I had paid a bribe in order to have my dissertation read on time. It was a very personal piece, and I was nervous about its publication. But this was only the beginning.
The article was picked up by national media and debated in the ministry of education. Parliamentarians requested an investigation be conducted and the university itself was forced to respond to the piece.
Students are now expected to wine and dine their professors in Kiev’s most expensive restaurants. Professors insist that I am to blame for the change, not them.
But change for the sake of change rarely leads to progress. It’s easier to tweak official rules than to change the minds of post-Soviet educators.
The linguistic department at the university, for example, banned a practice I had criticized in the piece, whereby students were expected to buy their professors expensive lunches and dinners catered by the university. Instead, students are now expected to wine and dine their professors in downtown Kiev’s most expensive restaurants. Professors insist that I am to blame for the change, not them.
The university has manufactured a lawsuit designed to portray the case as an isolated dispute between a former student and teacher. I know that the professor would never voluntarily have gone to court. I am told he was essentially forced: If he didn’t agree to sue “to recover his honor and dignity,” he was told he would be fired.
According to court documents, he is asking for about $120. Roughly $80 are to cover his court fees; the remaining $40 are the value he has placed on his honor and dignity.
The university chose a court in Kherson Oblast, just north of annexed Crimea, where I was born, and where Western observers or lawyers would be unlikely to venture.
By framing the suit as a single dispute, the system has already won. In reality, the case is much bigger than one professor. But it is of course much easier to make one teacher take responsibility for a $200 bribe than it is to reform an entire system.
Evidence of corruption in education is largely ignored by politicians and law enforcement due to a lack of political will. Many Western media outlets have applauded the success of Ukraine’s traffic police reform. Reformers would not have gotten very far if they were sued for damaging policemen’s dignity by accusing them of taking bribes.
Four hundred complaints have been registered and verified as violations across the country. At least 100 relate to bribery and corruption.
But there is hope. Students and others in the university system are willing to talk about corruption. I appealed to the national police and the general prosecutor to look at the list of 38 people likely to be involved in corruption in my alma mater. I have since learned that 400 complaints have been registered and verified as violations across the country. At least 100 relate to bribery and corruption.
One student who was willing to challenge corrupt university practices requested official information about tenders conducted by the university. A few days later, he received a warning from the deputy head of his department while he was in class. “No one knows how to request public information or understands how the tender system works at age 19,” the official said. The student was told that at his age he should be worried about football and girls.
Following the publication of my article, the then education minister promised to react. When he left office a few months later, the ministry had no record of official complaints.
But he persisted. The information he received revealed that over 93 percent of the university’s tenders were advertised in a substandard fashion and that over 72 percent have a non-transparent procurement procedure.
The question is how much students and journalists can really do. In 2014 and 2015, only one official complaint of bribery was officially registered by the ministry of education despite widespread corruption.
Following the publication of my article, the then education minister promised to react. When he left office a few months later, the ministry had no record of official complaints, despite a plethora of media reports about police detaining bribe takers across the country.
In August, the rector of the National Aviation Academy was arrested for taking a $170,000 bribe in exchange for handing out a professor’s position. The arrest is a promising sign, but not nearly enough.
Education is arguably the most important sector to reform in Ukraine. A fight over a $40 payment may not be worth it, but a fight for Ukraine’s future generations is. Let’s hope Ukraine’s new prosecutor general agrees.
Iuliia Mendel is a correspondent for the Ukrainian television channel Inter.