Attitudes towards the Unified State Exam as a Tool for Combating Corruption in Admissions to National Universities

Numerous All-Russian surveys of the last 5-7 years, revealing the attitude of various au diences to the Unified State Exam (USE), present a generally more positive attitude of young people to the USE against the background of a generally skeptical Russian population towards this tool of transition from secondary school to higher education. In this regard, it is of particular interest to study the opinions of those who faced this examination procedure (graduates who passed the unified state exam, as well as their parents).During the online survey conducted on March 04, 2024, 711 people (45.3% men, 54.7% women, M = 34.73 years) were interviewed who replied that they and/or their child participated in the exam procedure. Respondents expressed their degree of agreement with the statements of the questionnaires: condemning corruption and attitudes towards the USE.

An analysis of the data obtained showed that respondents from the province significantly more often agreed that the USE significantly removes financial barriers to admission to Russian universities. Women were significantly more likely to agree that the USE provides capable graduates from different social strata and from any region with the opportunity to enroll in an educational institution whose curriculum and specialty correspond to the applicant’s career orientation.

Younger respondents also significantly more often agreed that the USE provides the bright high school graduates from different social strata of Russia to enroll in any university. Those who were more likely to agree that the USE helped them get into the university they wanted to enter were significantly more likely to agree with all items of the questionnaire on attitudes towards the USE as an anti-corruption instrument. In addition, the same positive correlation was found between the degree  of  condemnation  of  corruption  and  the  attitude  towards  the  USE  as  a  tool  for  combating corruption,  that  is,  respondents  who  condemn  corruption  more  agree  that  the  USE  is  a  tool  for combating corruption.

Thus, we have shown that the unified state exam eliminates financial barriers to admission to Russian universities, that is, it is an anti-corruption tool, which was more often agreed by respondents who entered universities from regional and district centers, women and youth, as well as respondents who more disapprove of corruption.

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