Admission without punishment: how fake Olympiad winners end up in universities
It is much easier to enter prestigious universities without entrance tests than it seems - it is enough to pay 250-300 thousand rubles to win a prize at the required Olympiad. After that you can pass only one profile USE with 75 points. This is the scheme offered to applicants by certain firms that take advantage of the gaps in the organization of listed school Olympiads. Another, much less reliable, but cheaper option is to simply write off the Olympiad with the help of a tutor. How attackers discredit the school Olympiad movement and what universities think about this scheme - in the material of "Izvestia".
How the scheme became known
Mathematician, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexei Savvateev the other day made a statement about the mass purchase of solutions at the regional stage of the All-Russian Schoolboy Olympiad (ARSS) in mathematics. According to him, schoolchildren photographed the assignments, sent them to tutors, and the tutors sent the answers to everyone who paid for them. In different regions, many word-for-word works were found.
There is a similar problem with the Geography Olympiad. Blogger Bulat Abdrafikov told Izvestia that on February 11, those who had previously qualified for the All-Russian stage were unable to write difficult tasks at the regional stage of the All-Russian School of Social Sciences, but newcomers showed almost maximum scores. He provided Izvestia with lists of suspicious results in different regions of the country, confirming the fact of cheating.
Arseny Filin, a blogger and founder of the Grand Exam online school, also confirmed to Izvestia, citing people who contacted him, that there is a lot of cheating at this year's regional stage in math. It is claimed that the answers at the regional stage of the Olympiad cost only Br5-11 thousand, while they can help with the final stage for Br28-66 thousand.
Teachers also confirm this - they receive offers to write similar Olympiads. Tutor Polina told Izvestia that she was approached with such a request in Telegram.
- They offer either to write Olympiads for students - it costs 5-10 thousand rubles, or to give them those who will not be able to pass the USE for the high score required for admission - she explained. - Such a student is offered to buy a diploma of the Olympiad medalist, and the tutor or teacher, who sent the child, is entitled to a 10% commission for this - from 20 to 30 thousand rubles per student. Due to this the child will have the right to BVI (admission without entrance exams. - Ed.), he will have to pass one exam for 75 points and enter the university cheaper than if he would then study at a commercial department.
The industry of prize Olympiads
Arseny Filin believes that we are talking about a whole industry. According to him, he has received offers to advertise such firms that sell prizes at schoolchildren's Olympiads. In particular, one of such projects guarantees admission to a university.
- It is not the first year that I have come across this particular project. I have seen a sample of their "contract", there are formulations in the style of "admission on a turnkey basis", "payment after admission", - he told "Izvestia".
One of this year's applicants, an 11th grader from Moscow, told Izvestia that he was approached with an offer to enter a prestigious university without exams as part of the BVI at an open day at the Bauman Moscow State Technical University.
- I was walking between departments, asking questions. A girl of about 22 came up to me and asked if I could pass the USE with 75 points or higher to "confirm the Olympiad", - said the interlocutor of "Izvestia". - After that she said that she could help with admission to any university for the sum of Br250 thousand. She described the whole scheme in Telegram.
Boris Padalkin, the first vice-rector - vice-rector for academic work of Bauman Moscow State Technical University, told Izvestia that unscrupulous tutors enter the market of educational services with such offers.
-We at N.E. Bauman Moscow State Technical University have several times asked promoters advertising such services to leave the open days," he emphasized.
Another schoolboy told Izvestia that he found a website with an offer to enroll at the expense of an Olympiad win when he was looking for opportunities to prepare for the finals of the Higher Proba Olympiad. This portal promised to "prepare with a guarantee of results". The young man left an application, after which he was contacted via WhatsApp (owned by Meta, banned in Russia) and offered to become a prize-winner or winner of another Olympiad for money - OMMO (United Interuniversity Mathematics Olympiad of Schoolchildren). The pupil was required to pay 10% of the advance payment after the conclusion of the contract and 90% after the publication of the lists of diploma winners.
UMMO is the second level Olympiad, so for getting into the prizes one would have to pay 180 thousand rubles, for winning - 220 thousand rubles. For the first level Olympiads the price tag is higher - 270-340 thousand rubles. "Sellers" of prizes claim that they haven't caught anyone yet, but many have successfully passed in the National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow State Technical University, National Research Nuclear University MEPhI, Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, etc. The young man was offered to write the Olympiad on February 2.
Suspicions that it is this Olympiad where malicious people are working confirmed another of its participants, Andrei. He said that on February 2, he was writing the tasks of the final stage in NITU MISIS at Leninsky Prospekt, 4, when one of those who were in the audience, loudly beeped a micro-headset. The organizers, Andrei claims, did nothing, and only when the guys sitting next to him demanded that he be kicked out did the young man leave.
- "As far as I remember, he was wearing a classic suit - apparently so that he could hide the equipment behind his collar," Andrei told Izvestia.
According to him, the organizers did not demand to hand in phones, asking to leave them in a bag, and did not check the participants of the Olympiad additionally, only stating "zero tolerance to cheating".
NITU MISIS confirmed the incident that was recorded during the final stage of the OMMO.
- Observers in one of the classrooms heard a suspicious sound, assumed that someone in the audience has a micro-headset, and took measures to detect the source, while reporting the problem to a representative of the organizing committee of the Olympiad, - told "Izvestia" in the university. - This fact was recorded in writing in the appropriate act, the offender was taken out of the auditorium. The duty officers in the auditorium followed the protocol, keeping at the same time a calm and friendly atmosphere, not interfering with the other participants to perform the Olympiad tasks.
Yury Ustinov, the head of the career guidance center at MIET, the organizing university of the OMMO Olympiad, explained to Izvestia that there are a number of requirements for the Olympiad venues.
- In each auditorium with the participants there are three organizers who monitor behavior in the auditorium. Going to the toilet is regulated by time, and everyone who leaves the auditorium is assigned a separate attendant. If a student spends too much time in the stall, he is given special supervision," he said.
Last year, he said, there was one case when the organizers found out a schoolboy with a micro-headset on the Olympiad site. He was taken out of the classroom and his work was immediately canceled.
- In order to maximally exclude the possibility of using auxiliary technical means, things together with phones are handed in advance in another auditorium - including this allows to distance the phone and a possible microphone from each other, so that the connection between them is interrupted, - said Yuri Ustinov.
He emphasizes that it is "practically impossible" to use the phone to take pictures of assignments and have time to send them to someone. And when checking the works, experts pay special attention to the course of the solution - it will be clear if the child did not write it himself.
Which Olympiads give the right to BVI
Arseny Filin explained that there are three types of Olympiads, which will allow schoolchildren to qualify for preferential admission. The first is the All-Russian, the All-Russian School of Social Sciences, about the problems at which the mathematician Savvateev spoke. If a schoolchild gets into the top ten in Russia at the All-Russian School, he or she can enter any university in his or her specialty without exams. But, for example, in Moscow, prize-winners and participants of Olympiads are also given serious cash payments - and Savvateev named this as one of the possible reasons for widespread cheating at the regional stages.
The second one is the list of university Olympiads. OMMO is just such a competition. Usually their first stage is absentee, the second stage is necessarily face-to-face. They are divided by status into three levels. Here the rule can work, according to which the victory in the competition will allow you to enter if you pass the USE profile at least 75 points.
The third type of Olympiads are internal university Olympiads. In these competitions you can get preferences for admission only to a particular university.
What is the essence of the scheme
Izvestia journalist talked to one of the attackers, who offers a "guaranteed" prize at one of the Olympiads. We asked for an opportunity to pass this year in MSTU on a budget, but it was explained to us that all places for the next Olympiad have already been "reserved". It was about one of the listed university Olympiads. "Izvestia sent requests to some of its organizers.
"There are no places and, most likely, there will not be, but we may write you something else, - wrote us an interlocutor in Telegram. - Favor, getting a BVI to Baumanka is not incredibly difficult."
The essence of the proposal is that for the client select the Olympiad, write for him the qualifying round, and before the final stage "make preparation" - give equipment, explain how to use it. We are talking about micro-headphones. The participant of the Olympiad writes answers "word for word under dictation". The organizers of the scheme receive the task "at the moment of the Olympiad start". By the way, it was recently reported that in the last two years "there has been a distinct increase in the number of people who have had their earphones stuck in their ears".
The scheme was similar to the one recommended to other interlocutors of Izvestia. But a schoolchild at the OMMO Olympiad was also offered to use some kind of "beeper" with the help of which he or she was supposed to "beep" what variant should be solved.
For participation in the scheme we were asked to pay 300 thousand rubles, as the places in the Olympiads are running out.
How universities fight such schemes
Vladimir Kolodkin, Vice-Rector of the Presidential Academy (RANEPA), said that the university had heard about such schemes.
-Participants of our Olympiads contact us and send us links to these dubious Telegram channels with such offers and promises," he told Izvestia. - We consider such actions as academic fraud, we have been monitoring them for years and keep a high bar of requirements for participation in the Olympiads organized by the Presidential Academy.
Since 2025, the university has been using micro-headphone detectors, which allow them to hear everything that is dictated to the participant. This is a certified device.
-This year, for example, we had to cancel some works for violations of the rules of the Olympiad, - said Vladimir Kolodkin. - It is noteworthy that those who were caught did not believe us that we had a recording of dictated answers that fully coincided with the answers in the form, and demanded that we let them listen to it.
A very limited number of employees have access to the Olympiad tasks, says the academy's vice-rector. The supervisory committee is responsible for "leaking" the variants.
Boris Ilyukhin, a senior researcher at the Center for Continuing Education Economics of the IPEI Presidential Academy, notes that there are no detailed regulations describing the procedure for holding the List Olympiads. There is only a general procedure for holding schoolchildren Olympiads approved by the Ministry of Education and Science, but in essence each organizer is responsible for itself.
"Izvestia" also sent inquiries to leading technical universities about the academic performance of students admitted without entrance examinations. NITU MISIS emphasized that they did not notice any problems with the academic performance of those admitted to the university - both Olympiad students and those enrolled based on the results of the Unified State Exam. MSTU notes that the results of Olympiad students in the first and second years of study are much better than those of students admitted through the general competition, which "confirms the high efficiency of Olympiad training and its positive impact on the educational process".
The Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Education and Science did not respond to Izvestia's inquiries on the topic.
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