The scandalous USE: how to fight grade buying and cheating?
Once again, there is a scandal over the USE this year. Again the questions were known in advance, and high marks were purchased... Is there any way to root out the problem? Argumenti i Fakty asked Yaroslav Kuzminov, Rector or HSE and chairman of the Public Chamber commission on developing education.
Are there no spaces?
— Yaroslav Ivanovich, the USE is constantly being improved but to no avail. Parents of school leavers write that in the southern republics you can buy a grade of 100 marks...
— If you think it wasn’t as bad before the USE was introduced, you are wrong. The system of oral exams meant it was more hidden. Having the USE as a way of measuring knowledge that is formally independent from schools and HEIs is a serious achievement. It really has increased access to the leading HEIs for school leavers from remote regions, from less well off families. At the HSE the number of those students is twice what it was before the USE.
Yes, the real talent in Moscow and St Petersburg, are put alongside those who, “by some miracle” got 90-100 marks. But, according to our research, they are not more than 10%. Beyond that, everything depends on the HEI - once they get down to real work, the students with the fake top marks drop out after the first session. If you look at the HSE and other top Moscow university math and physics departments you won’t find that problem. But if at a university you can bargain about your grades, there’s going to be problems. The problem is not the USE but professionalism and morale in the education system. The Public Chamber has proposed ways to improve the USE. The third task which carries the most points and is marked by hand, not by a computer should be checked in a region, other than where the exam is taken, for example. The USE should be split into two levels, basic and advanced - which would get the most points. The advances level should set tasks that require creative answers and should be organised and checked by well-known specialists. It would be helpful to take into account average school grades from the last three classes as well as the USE mark.
— But students with bogus top marks are already taking up real places in HEIs...
— We are already doing something to combat them. At our own expense, we are taking on 15 - 25% more students to cover for the dishonest applicants. The fierce competition at least in 30 - 40 HEIs, means people are buying high USE marks to get into MSU, MGIMO, HSE, SPbU and so on. The other HEIs with hand on heart are taking students with average results. So, taking into account the failings of USE, let’s give those HEIs which everyone is desperate to get into, the chance to take on more students knowing that a number of them are going to drop out.