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- 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 five 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 , 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 , 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 Accreditation and Quality Assurance in Higher Education of Serbia (NAT) in the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education was reduced from full membership to the adjoining member. This also coincided with the period of exponential growth of doctorates in Serbia. In 100 years, from 1905 (when Belgrade University was organized as such and organized doctoral studies) to 2005, on all universities which were formed in time, there were 16,860 doctorates. In the next 8 years, from 2006 to 2013, there were 9,000, with additional 15,000 doctoral students. There were 205 doctorates in 2007, 770 in 2012 and 2,012 in 2016. In only one week in 2016, 187 doctorates were awarded. The paradox is that the number of students in Serbia is below the European average compared to the total population, but the number of doctoral students is well above. One mentor has up to 15 students. 2014 survey showed that 65% of the faculties had no plagiarism procedure, and out of the remaining 35%, only few were able to explain what the procedure actually looks like. (en)
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- "It is hard for me. It is hard a lot because I worked arduously all my life, I know how much effort I made to be the best pupil and the best student. And then it is hard for me to accept decision of political commissions so because of that I will continue to fight" - Siniša Mali on decision that he plagiarized his doctorate (en)
- "Plagiarism is representation of someone else's ideas or works, entirely or partially, without naming the original authorship or sources, that is, illegal claiming of others intellectual works and scientific results and their representation as your own, so as literal taking of other author's text, that is, copying from electronic and printed sources, from Serbian or foreign language, partially or entirely, without naming author's name and source from which the text was taken, so as without strict marking of the taken part." Professional Code of Ethics, University of Belgrade, section of Article 22 (en)
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