Looking back upon the centuries one would suspect that in earlier ages universities of medieval France and Italy were very different from the multiplicity of organizational and institutional forms of higher education institutions in modern times, and yet one would be surprised how much these old "universitas" and modern universities have in common. One of the common features may be corruption and academic misconduct that can often bee seen in universities. The increasing scale and scope of corruption in higher education in the former Soviet Bloc as well as numerous other countries urges a better understanding of the problem within the context of socio-economic transformations. Corruption in higher education is deeply rooted in the organizational structure of each higher education institution. Corruption has a long history and a proud tradition. Corruption in higher education is an organic part of corruption overall, with its culture, traditions, functions, and mechanisms. The goal of this paper is to present a description of modern day higher education corruption from a historical perspective. This paper is based on the techniques of positive analysis along with some elements of comparative analysis, and withstands from normative or moral judgments. A well-structured description of higher education corruption in a historical context is helpful in developing strategies for its eradication or prevention. This paper first presents the concept of corruption as a historical category and then analyzes corrupt legacies at the stages of admission, teaching and learning, and graduation. It also addresses issues of funding, discrimination against foreign nationals, publishing, and state-university relations. The genesis of forms of corruption and the determination of corruption as such is understood in a changing historical context.