Centre for Civic Education (CCE) welcomes the subsequent prudence of the University of Montenegro (UoM) Management regarding the case of Associate Professor of the Law Faculty of the University of Montenegro, Bojana Lakićević Đuranović. It would be much more beneficial to the UoM itself that this position was taken immediately after the receipt of the CCE’s Proposal for determining the violation of academic integrity by this professor, and without the need for the CCE to address the Government of Montenegro.
It is good that the University of Montenegro rhetorically condemns any form of violation of academic integrity, and it would be even better to see how it looks in the practice of processing specific cases, such as the latter.
It is very important that precisely in this, the most drastic example of plagiarism so far, the UoM has an unequivocal and harsh reaction in order to influence prevention of taking someone’s else work and ensuring personal benefits for academic staff who choose such unethical actions.
The CCE expects the Senate to urgently place this issue on the agenda, which may also imply an extraordinary session, since the proceeding is undoubtedly urgent. The Senate is obliged to appoint a special Commission on determination of plagiarism, for which it is already clear now that it will have an easy job that can be completed quickly. After that, the case must be taken over by the Court of Honor which, in accordance with the provisions of the Code of Ethics, should implement the proceeding and determine the sanction. Finally, the Rector will at the end have to decide whether Lakićević Đuranović can work at the University of Montenegro afterwards.
Snežana Kaluđerović, Senior Legal Adviser