Professor

BELGRADE - Over 1,800 scientists and university staff from Serbia and abroad backed the motion to protect academic honour in Serbia which has been submitted to the Ministry of Education, National Council for Higher Education, National Council for Scientific and Technological Development, Conference of the Universities of Serbia and the Commission for scientific titles.

The Senate of Belgrade University is to ask the Conference of Universities of Serbia, comprised of both state and private universities, to form a commission to review claims that the Interior Minister plagiarised his PhD thesis.

BELGRADE - Ten Faculties of the state-owned University of Belgrade (UB), gathered in the Academic Council of Social and Humanistic Sciences, will request setting up of a commission to examine the doctoral thesis of Serbian Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic, Council member and Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy Prof. Milos Arsenijevic told Tanjug on Tuesday.

Professor Srbijanka Turajlic said the only way to resolve the row over whether the Interior Minister plagiarised his university dissertation was for the academic to "wake up and press the authorities" about it, she told BIRN.

Instead, the academic community seems intent on pushing the issue of Nebojsa Stefanovic's PhD thesis under the carpet, the retired professor added.

Srdjan Verbic, Serbian Education Minister, on Thursday called on Mica Jovanovic, rector of the privately run Megatrend University in Serbia, to resign.

The call came after the European Network of National Information Centres on Academic Recognition and Mobility determined that Jovanovic did not obtain a PhD at the London School of Economics, LSE, as his official biography claims.

Over 2,700 professors, lecturers and PhD students in Serbia have signed an online petition demanding an investigation of claims that the Interior Minister copied parts of his doctoral thesis.

BELGRADE - University professors, assistant professors, researchers, holders of doctoral degrees and doctoral students have launched a petition requesting that the Serbian minister of education immediately form an independent academic commission that would analyse the doctoral thesis of Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic, Wednesday's issue of Politika reports.

Petition calls for independent commission

BELGRADE -- A petition is calling on the minister of education to immediately form an independent academic commission to analyze the doctoral thesis Nebojša Stefanović.

Students and faculty members gathered in front of the Albanian government offices in Tirana to denounce planned reforms to higher education, which they say will hurt public universities to the benefit of private colleges.

Holders of law degrees issued from universities in European Union member states henceforth have the right to practice law in Greece without getting their certificates recognized by Greek authorities as had been the case.