Serb Professors Charged with Selling Law Degrees

Serb police arrested 10 university professors and officials on Tuesday on suspicion of taking bribes to ensure students passed law exams.

Serb police arrested 10 university professors and officials on Tuesday on suspicion of taking bribes to ensure students passed law exams.

The dean was among those arrested at the law school in the central Serbian town of Kragujevac, a police statement said.

"There are grounds for suspicion that they have, over a lengthy period, received bribes or mediated in receiving bribes from numerous students of the law school in Kragujevac, enabling them to pass exams ...," the statement said.

It said the teachers had recorded fake marks for the students and forged reports about non-existent exams.

"We will have to deal with it and everyone will bear their individual responsibility," Milos Djuran, president of Kragujevac University, was quoted by the state news agency Tanjug as saying.

The Students' Union of Serbia said it had warned the authorities for years about corruption in Serbian universities.

"We hope this is the first step towards resolving a problem which is burdening the whole of society," the union said.

"We are informing the authorities in Serbia that besides the university in Kragujevac there are also universities in Belgrade, Novi Sad, Nis and Mitrovica whose students hope that you have just started your work today," a statement said.