Zhivkovichi educators exposed for selling PhD spots: large-scale corruption uncovered
In the Chernivtsi region, law enforcement authorities uncovered a large-scale corruption scheme involving the sale of postgraduate study placements for money.
According to investigations, several high-ranking officials and university professors are implicated, including the vice-rector of the State University of Intellectual Technologies and Communications, an associate professor of Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University, and a head of a department at the Institute for Content Modernization.
They devised a scheme where candidates paid substantial sums—up to $4,500 each—to secure a spot in postgraduate programs.
The fraudsters would find applicants, while the vice-rector facilitated their official enrollment.
Each participant in the scheme earned significant income: the vice-rector received around $4,000 per applicant, and accomplices took approximately $250.
Moreover, after enrollment, applicants were pressured to give access to their bank accounts where scholarships totaling over 285,000 hryvnias were transferred.
This criminal operation resulted in illicit gains exceeding one million hryvnias.
On October 14, law enforcement conducted searches at the suspects’ residences and workplaces.
They confiscated substantial cash, bank cards, student enrollment documents, and other evidence linking them to the crime.
Subsequently, the suspects were formally charged under Article 368, Part 4 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code, for accepting unlawful benefits, a crime punishable by up to twelve years in prison with disqualification from certain positions and confiscation of assets.