Croatia moves to eradicate high-level corruption in universities

19/09/2008

ZAGREB, Croatia -- Police arrested more than 90 people Thursday (September 18th), including well-known professors and Desa Mlikotin Tomic, the chairwoman of parliament's conflict-of-interest watchdog, as part of an operation against corruption in universities and colleges. Operation Index began at 06:30am local time and covered the transport, economics and mechanical-engineering faculties of Zagreb University. Police brought in a total of 95 people for questioning, including 21 professors, three assistants and three university administrators, said Chief Prosecutor Mladen Bajic. The rest of the suspects are students and other members of the public. Police have raided more than 100 houses, cars and offices since the beginning of the year. They say some professors made students pay between 400 and 2,000 euros to pass an exam. Enrolment allegedly cost 9,000 euros. (Index.hr, DPA, HTR - 18/09/08)