'Drunk' Russian lecturer 'forced students to sit 23 hour exam'

A lecturer at a Russian university allegedly submitted students to a 23-hour exam without food or lavatory breaks while she was drunk. Landysh Zaripova is said to have mostly ignored students and rambled about her business interests and her love for clothes during the marathon science test at Kazan Federal University, in central Russia.

Her charges, who wrote a collective letter of complaint, said they had started the oral examination at 10am on June 26 and finished at 9am the next day. The students claimed Ms Zaripova had periodically gone to drink alcohol in a neighbouring room, but did not let them leave her office until morning.



In an interview the lecturer denied being inebriated. "Do you think I am an idiot?" she said. "I was sober. The students just decided to get revenge on me because they couldn't pass the exam." Russian university students often take oral exams, answering questions before their tutor, one-by-one. Ms Zaripova did not deny that it had taken a long time.

"The group was big – 15 people, and the subject difficult," she explained. "It's hard to pass in nuclear physics." Albert Aganov, the head of the university's physics institute, said the matter was being investigated but it was likely no action would be taken.