This study addresses higher education corruption in the US by comparing it with that in Russia and does so by analyzing media reports on educational corruption that cover 20-year period from 1998 to 2017. US higher education is decentralized and autonomous, yet not entirely market-driven, while Russia still has a centralized higher education system characterized by weak links with industries and low economic effectiveness. Public opinion is influenced by the media, including when it comes to higher education corruption, but the national media is not particularly generous in highlighting this burning problem. In case of the US higher education corruption, the image projected by the media is that of fraud, while in case of Russian higher education, the projected image is that of bribery, nepotism, fraud, and incompetency. The standardized testing, called to improve the situation with corruption in college admissions, has received a mixed review in the media. In both cases, the area is admissions and the issue in general is access to higher education. Yet, the two country cases are very different, and this difference is contextually explained. In its core, these are financial issues in the US and scholastic abilities in Russia.
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