On the 16th of March, Portalb.mk’s received in its email inbox a pdf document that was signed “Researchers from the Initiative for Improving the Quality of the Higher Education (RIIQHE)” and bore the title “Magazine Veritas.” The document stated that some professors at the Faculty of Medical Sciences of the University of Tetovo obtained their titles illegally i.e. by stealing other people’s works without citing the authors and two of them have managed to become professors in conflagration of the Law on Higher Education. informs Portalb.mk
What do we know about RIIQHE?
Initially, Portalb.mk’s newsroom decided to contact the authors of this text. The document was sent by a “Dimitri Ivanov” whose email address , after he was contacted for more details, turned out to be inactive.
Later, in the document titled as “Magazine Veritas”, Portalb.mk that the web page http://www.NIRCAU-rnm.org/ isn’t active just like their email address [email protected] which is also inactive.
The address in Tetovo leads nowhere as it has no number and it is located in one of the longest streets in Tetovo.
The magazine’s Editor in Chief, Gafar Bajraktari is an unknown person in the academic world and when contacted by Portalb.mk, through the only functioning email address, there was no response.
The document that was titled as the magazine was not published at any other web page, and it has no connection with the magazine with the same title „Veritas“ from Albania, confirmed its editorship.
The document was published by in7 portal. “The researchers” are unknown, and in this case, these are just initials. They wrote that they had been researching for several months about the academic dishonesty at the University of Tetovo and that the university’s Rector has been notified.
“So far, we have sent several complaints to the Rector’s Office for theft of scientific papers from professors PhDs at this faculty that have undeservedle advanced in their academic careers. We received no reply from there,” informed RIIQHE.
On the other hand, the dean of the Medical Faculty, Nevzat Elezi in his statement for Portalb.mk stressed that the researchers should have submitted their data to the Rector’s Office and not to the media.
“It’s not necessary to act directly with pompous titles from the media and these scandals should be backed with facts. The researchers should know that there is an address and that is the University of Tetovo or the prosecution, and these issues should be solved in this manner and not through the media,” said Dean Elezi.
He said that three of the people that were mentioned regarding plagiarism still haven’t finished their postgraduate studies
“I wouldn’t say that these are plagiarisms as some of them are my candidates who still have one more semester to finish in order to present their thesis and before it is submitted to the scientific-teaching council, the mentor has to submit it for plagiarism check,” said Elezi.
Who are the accused professors?
There are suspicions that a father, mother, and daughter were caught by RIIQHE, that they have completely stolen their scientific papers, that were appropriated, and have managed to be appointed at positions that they currently occupy at the Faculty of Medical Sciences.
Nexhbedin Beadini comes from the village of Kamenjane in the area of Tetovo and is currently employed as a Professor of Cell Biology and Human Genetics at the Faculty of Medical Sciences in Tetovo. Three of his papers, according to RIIQHE, were shown to have beenplagiarized.
Sheqibe Beadini is the wife of the aforementioned professor and is currently employed as a Professor of Biochemistry and Physiology at the Faculty of Medical Sciences in Tetovo, her paper, according to RIIQHE’s research, has resulted in 100% plagiarism.
Albulena Beadini is a daughter of the aforementioned professors, and is currently employed as an Assistant at the Faculty of Medical Sciences in Tetovo and her work, according to RIIQHE has resulted in 100 % plagiarism i.e. in her paper she has only changed the name of the country from where the paper was stolen.
Emira Bexheti is also employed as an Assistant at the Faculty of Medical Sciences at the University in Tetovo and is teaching about Human Genetics and Cell Biology. RIIQHE’s report evaluated her scientific paper as stolen i.e. plagiarism.
Mirlind Bexheti was an employee at the Faculty of Medical Sciences at the University of Tetovo and is a Lecturer in Pharmacology. According to RIIQHE, he has stolen his scientific paper, and then he presented it as his own effort. Portalb.mk found out that currently, he is not working at the University of Tetovo.
Nasir Bexheti is the father of the aforementioned Mirlind, and according to RIIQHE he isn’t meeting the criteria for the scientific title he has. According to this research, this person does not meet the criteria that are requested according to the RNM’s Law on Higher Education. These criteria are explained in this study. He is teaching Anatomy 1 and 3.
Destan Haliti is an employee at the Faculty of Medical Sciences- the University of Tetovo as a Neurology Assistant, and according to RIIQHE, his scientific paper turned out to be plagiarism.
Ekrem Ismani is also an employee at the Faculty of Medical Sciences in Tetovo; He teaches Transfusiology and Pathophysiology, and his scientific paper according to RIIQHE, turned out to be plagiarism.
Qenan Ferati , according to RIIQHE is an employee at the Faculty of Medical Sciences in Tetovo and he was employed without meeting the legal criteria.
Portalb.mk has requested and is expecting answers from all accused of plagiarism and for employment by disregarding the Law on Higher Education.
Answers were also requested from the Ministry of Education and Science.
On the other hand, several months ago Portalb.mk alarmed about the phenomenon of thesis sales and purchase from scientific papers.
Over 13.413 ads for the sale and purchase of master’s and diploma thesis are at the moment active on trader’s pages in North Macedonia where the prices vary depending on the demand, up to 500 EUR, and if one is lucky, he or she can obtain a master’s degree in science for just 150 EUR.
