Serbian Mayor Accused of Copying Thesis

The Serbian website Pescanik on Wednesday published a study alleging that over 30 per cent of the thesis of the Mayor of Belgrade was lifted from other people's work.

Some 33 per cent of Sinisa Mali's university thesis was copied from other people’s work, it said, and the content of numerous pages was copied almost completely, it added.

Mali obtained his PhD title at Belgrade University’s Faculty of Organisational Sciences in June 2013.

His PhD thesis entitled Value creation through the process of restructuring and privatisation - theoretical concepts and Serbian experience, is publicly available.

The unnamed author of Pescanik, who analysed the work, wrote that the copied parts of the thesis were not just minor bits, but also crucial conclusions that Mali presented as his own.

BIRN could not reach Mali to comment the claims about his PhD thesis by the time of publication.

The author of the analysis urged Mali, and other officials accused of plagiarising their theses to resign, and called on Belgrade University to investigate plagiarism in their midst.

“Belgrade University now must prove it is different from Megatrend,” the author wrote, referring to the private college from which Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic graduated, and who was earlier accused of plagiarism.

The Conference of Universities of Serbia, comprised of both state and private universities, on July 9 declared it had no jurisdiction to review claims about Stefanovic's diploma.

Around 3, 000 professors, lecturers, and PhD students in Serbia earlier signed an online petition demanding an investigation of claims that he copied his doctoral thesis.

Vladimir Bumbasirevic, rector of Belgrade University...