page_title: Siniša Mali plagiarism scandal
hierarchical_section_title: Siniša Mali plagiarism scandal
caption_attribution_description: English: Photo of Serbian Minister of Finance; autor: Ministry of Finance
context_page_description: Siniša Mali plagiarism scandal refers to the political scandal in Serbia which led to the 2019 annulment of the 2013 doctoral dissertation of economist and politician Siniša Mali by the Belgrade University. After the first plagiarism claims in 2014, the process spanned for over 5 years, during which Mali progressed from the position of mayor of Belgrade to the office of the finance minister in the Serbian government, and became a member of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party. In time, question of Mali's doctorate crossed the lines of academia becoming a political affair and a much wider social issue in Serbia due to the inactivity of the state and educational institutions regarding this matter, which in turn provoked public protests, university's blockade by the students and a fierce public and political division.
context_section_description: Siniša Mali plagiarism scandal refers to the political scandal in Serbia which led to the 2019 annulment of the 2013 doctoral dissertation of economist and politician Siniša Mali by the Belgrade University. After the first plagiarism claims in 2014, the process spanned for over 5 years, during which Mali progressed from the position of mayor of Belgrade to the office of the finance minister in the Serbian government, and became a member of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS). In time, question of Mali's doctorate crossed the lines of academia becoming a political affair and a much wider social issue in Serbia due to the inactivity of the state and educational institutions regarding this matter, which in turn provoked public protests, university's blockade by the students and a fierce public and political division.
  Being a close friend of Aleksandar Vučić, head of the SNS and president of the Republic of Serbia, his brother Andrej Vučić, and a school friend of Serbian prime minister Ana Brnabić, Mali was vehemently defended by the entire governing and party establishment in what was described as the operation "defend and protect plagiarism" with the entire "machinery employed to defend the doctorate". On the other side, this triggered protests and public performances calling for the annulment of Mali's doctorate which ultimately blended into the wider civil and political Serbian protests since 2018. This was enhanced by the perception of his tenure as the mayor of Belgrade, which was described as the "deluge of affairs" while Mali himself was labeled the "walking affair", a "problematic character followed by his affairs", "controversial" and "scandal-ridden". The plagiarism was even described as a lesser affair compared to other political and economic ones Mali had in his career.
  Due to the scandal outbreak, Mali was never officially promoted to the rank of the doctor of philosophy, which didn't prevent pro-government media to title him that way. On the electoral list for the 2018 Belgrade elections, he even named "doctor of philosophy" as his "occupation". On 12 December 2019, the Senate of the Belgrade University unanimously annulled Mali's doctorate due to plagiarism. Ten days later, Mali removed info on his doctoral degree from his official biography on the Ministry of Finance website, but he remained in office, refusing to step down and calling the decision political.
  The case has been often compared, unfavorably though, to the Guttenberg plagiarism scandal of Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, German Minister of Defense who resigned his post after the plagiarism was revealed. But, while in Guttenberg's case political epilogue came after 20 days and a legal one after 9 months, scandal with Mali's doctorate dragged on for 6 calendar years while he progressed in the political hierarchy. During the process, behavior of the faculty and university was labeled as shameful, and the entire process as the "mawkish saga" which ultimately was solved thanks to the students, several professors and public who didn't let the affair go away. The academia's fear of the politicians was blamed for the protraction of the process, but also the pressure of the ruling establishment on the FON and the obedience and corruption of intellectual elite.
  The doctorate of Mali was one in the series of Serbian education-related scandals since 2014, regarding dubious diplomas, master's degrees and doctorates of the high-profile public persons, mainly politicians (Tomislav Nikolić, Nebojša Stefanović, Mića Jovanović, Jorgovanka Tabaković, Aleksandar Martinović, Igor Bečić, Aleksandar Šapić, Jelena Trivan, Aleksandar Vulin, Aleksandar Antić, Zoran Đorđević). Mali's doctorate was the first annulled by the university itself (Jovanović's doctorate was declared non-existing earlier, in 2014, but it was done by Srđan Verbić, Minister of Education at the time). On 11 March 2015 European Parliament expressed concerns that neither academia nor political institutions deal with the problem of plagiarism. In 2018, membership of the National Entity for Accreditat
caption: Siniša Mali
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