http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/04/04/002.html
$7,000 Buys Dissertation and Flashy Degree
By Oksana Yablokova
Staff Writer
Vladimir Filonov / MT
A view of Moscow State University's journalism school near Manezh Square.
Want to get a doctorate but don't feel like spending months in a library and
days and nights in front of a computer composing a dissertation? No problem.
For $1,000 to $7,000, a consultant or an entire firm will write the
dissertation for you and prep you on defending it before an academic board.
In a worrisome trend for the academic community, dubious academic
credential-building has become a common practice among businessmen, politicians
and young men hoping to avoid military service, who use ghostwritten work, or
at least someone else's help in writing a dissertation, to obtain a degree.
The issue of scholastic integrity took the spotlight last week after U.S.
researchers declared that large parts of an economics dissertation written by
President Vladimir Putin in the mid-1990s had been lifted from a U.S. textbook
published 20 years earlier. The Kremlin has not commented on the issue.
There is a simple motivation behind the demand for paid dissertations: The
popularity of academic degrees has been growing steadily in recent years. The
Russian State Library, which has obtained every dissertation defended in the
country since 1944, received a record 31,000 works last year, said Nina
Avdeyeva, who works in the library's dissertation department.
The Russian system of academic degrees is different from most Western systems
and includes a "candidate of science" degree, which is roughly the equivalent
of a Ph.D., and a higher degree of "doctor of science." Seekers of both degrees
are required to write a dissertation and defend it before an academic board.
Firms that offer to write dissertations estimate that up to 30 percent of all
postgraduate students resort to their services these days, and they said the
number continued to grow.
Most students seek a candidate of science degree but are too busy to put their
careers on hold for the six or more months that it takes to write a
dissertation, industry experts said.
They also have various needs. Some ask for assistance at a certain stage of
their studies, while others want the dissertation written from beginning to
end. But cases of people who only read their work for the first time as they
prepare to defend it are rare, and few consultants or firms are willing to risk
working on such assignments.
"We only deal with clients whom we see as capable of writing the dissertation
themselves," said Ksenia Bakhvalova, general director of LSS Group, a Moscow
firm specializing in helping students write dissertations.
"If a client knows nothing about the subject, we won't be able to help because
he or she will never be able to defend the dissertation before the academic
board," Bakhvalova said.
She said that her firm has contacts with several dozen researchers in various
sciences who specialize in writing dissertations from start to finish.
Bakhvalova said that some 70 percent of her firm's clients are male college and
university graduates in their 20s who want to enter a postgraduate program to
avoid compulsory military service.
By law, postgraduate students cannot be drafted while they are affiliated with
a university or research institute and preparing their dissertations. Once they
receive the degree, they automatically become ineligible for the draft.
"By using our services, clients are killing two birds with one stone: getting a
degree that will look good on their resumes; and liberating themselves from the
annual fear of being drafted and having to pay a new bribe to avoid it,"
Bakhvalova said in a recent interview in her central Moscow office, a simple
room with a desk and chairs. She wore a United Russia pin on her jacket.
"We often end up dealing with the mothers and fathers of degree seekers who are
ready to pay to ensure that their sons do not end up in the army," Bakhvalova
said.
The rest of Bakhvalova's clients include entrepreneurs, government officials
and lawyers, usually in their 40s and 50s, with successful careers and the
desire to boost their prestige in the eyes of other people.
She declined to identify any of her clients.
Pavel Kochkin, development manager of a firm called the Library Fund for
Postgraduates and Degree Seekers, said that most postgraduate students had
solid reasons for not writing the dissertations by themselves.
"Obtaining an academic degree is a very complicated, bureaucratic procedure,
and few degree seekers can meet all the requirements, especially if they have
full-time jobs or live in the regions," Kochkin said.
For example, the students need to publish at least three articles in scientific
journals and spend weeks in a special dissertation library outside Moscow,
collecting statistics and other materials necessary to write the dissertation,
Kochkin said.
He said that his firm's services include recommendations to postgraduate
programs in Moscow colleges and universities that compose and publish articles,
as well as general consultations on how to write and present dissertations.
"Of course the dissertation should be innovative and have practical value,"
Kochkin said.
Students also have to make sure that no other dissertations have been written
on the same topic over the past five years or the academic board might reject
the work.
"There are dozens of little details that most people simply do not know about,
and we can advise them. As such, we have to inform applicants that it is an
unavoidable tradition to throw a dinner or reception for the members of the
academic board after the presentation of the thesis," Kochkin said.
He and Bakhvalova refused to disclose their earnings but said they charged
$1,000 to $7,000 per dissertation, depending on the client's needs.
"On the whole, this is a fun business that brings in good revenues," Bakhvalova
said.
A senior academician who chairs the history branch of the Highest Academic
Qualification Commission, a postgraduate oversight agency in the Education and
Science Ministry, acknowledged that ghostwriting was a big problem.
"What is true is that it has become extremely popular with government officials
to obtain academic degrees by presenting dissertations of very poor quality,"
said Alexander Chubaryan, who also heads the Academy of Sciences' World History
Research Institute.
"This practice does worry us because it leads to the devaluation of the
academic community's reputation," Chubaryan said.
The majority of dissertations are written in economics, pedagogical studies and
law, he said.
Bakhvalova confirmed that these are the most popular fields, adding that firms
like hers do not deal with writing dissertations in the technical or natural
sciences. "Problems with those works are eminent, so we prefer not to take the
risk," she said.
She also said far fewer clients sought the dissertations required to get the
higher doctor of science degree. These are more serious works and subject to
closer scrutiny by academic boards, making them much more expensive, Bakhvalova
said.
Chubaryan said academic boards were aware of the problem of ghostwriting but
found it hard to prove when considering dissertations. He noted that boards
currently cannot be held accountable for approving dodgy dissertations and
suggested it would help to make them at least partially responsible.
"Then we need to put an end to this stream of dissertations written by
government officials and lawmakers by making them subject to a thorough
examination," Chubaryan said.
Most federal ministers have advanced degrees, as do 214 of the 450 deputies in
the State Duma.
Kochkin said postgraduate students often resort to the services of his firm
after failing to receive guidance from mentors at their places of study.
"If you are fortunate, you will get a good mentor who guides you and oversees
all the stages of your work. But many students only see their unmotivated
mentors twice a year," Kochkin said.
Chubaryan conceded that the process of completing postgraduate school was
difficult but said that was no excuse to not study. "I understand the
difficulties that students encounter on the way to obtaining a degree, but a
degree seeker should still do everything by himself. That is the only way," he
said.
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