BRATISLAVA, September 29, (WEBNOVINY) — The current laws in Slovakia are not sufficiently equipped to cope with fraud in university education and fraudulent academic titles. In order to address the situation, the Education Ministry drafted an amendment to the law according to which a person who obtains fraudulently the title of bachelor, engineer, doctor, or a assistant professor in Slovakia, the school rector would have the right to strip him/her of such title based on a court decision as of May of next year. The Education Ministry proposes the measure in an amendment to the University Act that minister Eugen Jurzyca introduced at a news conference on Thursday. He specified that they the draft further stipulates that gaining an academic title fraudulently will be defined as a crime in some specific cases. However, the ministry is yet to discuss the issue with the Justice Ministry. Justice Minister Lucia Zitnanska is yet to examine whether such deed can be regarded a crime. The applicable law already contains paragraphs on corruption and forging official documents.
In line with the amendment, a court will be able to proclaim the study invalid if it turns out that the graduate failed to fulfill terms for concluding the study. The period of limitation is proposed at five years. However the involuntary loss of the title will not affect relevancy of acts that the graduate carried out based on the achieved education. The proposal however does not include the possibility to strip professors of title as they are appointed and recalled by the president in line with valid legislation. The ministry argues that the world statistics do not contain cases of stripping a professor of his/her title.
SITA