Corruption at Serbian Universities

Exam - how much?

It is not yet certain what is going to happen with the Faculty of Law in Kragujevac after this affair. Some professors consider that the faculty should be terminated and the law department within the University in Kragujevac opened instead. However, students disagree with this decision


By MARINA JAKOVLJEVIĆ
from Belgrade, SERBIA
(Journalist of daily newspaper "Glas javnosti")


More than 10 professors from Kragujevac were arrested in the past month on the account of taking bribe from students, and the police have also taken into custody three professors from the Faculties of Law in Priština and Niš who used to teach in Kragujevac. Dean of the Faculty of Law, Sveto Purić, and assistant to the Minister of Education, Emilija Stanković, are among the arrested group. The police have also taken into custody several present-day and ex students who are suspected to have given money or acted as mediators in paying. Professors are believed to have taken money from students for the exams, as well as writing marks into students' booklets without even seeing students. They charged the exams from EUR 500-1,000, and this group of professors was discovered by a policeman who managed to "pass" 11 exams without ever stepping into the faculty building.

The number of professor staff at the Faculty of Law has been halved after these arrests, however, the lecture dynamics is back to normal since professors from Belgrade and Niš started teaching instead of the former ones. Phd Milos Đuran, rector of the University of Kragujevac, says that the university has taken all the measures in order to stop corruption at the faculty.

- We have placed a box at the faculty where students can anonymously put their complaints regarding corruption. It has been suggested that students take exams orally, and in instances where that is not possible, that exams be made public, in wired halls and in presence of the board of examiners - said professor Đuran.

He believes that there is no hyper-production of diplomas at the Faculty of Law, since only 120 out of 2,000 students a year graduates. All public and private universities in Serbia have supported the University in Kragujevac in its fighting against corruption. PhD Branko Kovačević, rector of the University in Belgrade, is of the opinion that the value of our diplomas has not decreased worldwide after these arrests.

- This is individual case at one small university. Greece has announced that it will no longer accept Serbian diplomas, however, every time something bad crops up, foreigners back off. There was a similar situation in 1998. when the regime of Slobodan Milošević abolished the autonomy of university. All western countries decided not to accept Serbian diplomas at the time. We have to deal with corruption and show the world that we are willing to solve the issue - said Kovačević.

It is not yet certain what is going to happen with the Faculty of Law after this affair. Some professors consider that the faculty should be terminated and the law department within the University in Kragujevac opened instead. However, students from Kragujevac disagree with this decision.