Several people have been punished or taken into custody in China's academic community after the National Audit Office discovered the involvement of seven professors in five universities in corruption incidents in April 2012.

Two years ago, seven experts in science were accused of academic fraud after getting caught embezzling funds from research amounting to 25 million yuan, or US$4.08 million.

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One of the most highlighted cases was that of young professor Li Ning, who was the first person in China to successfully clone a pig through the use of somatic cell nuclear transfer.

Li, who had been dubbed as the "youngest academician in China", had been the leading figure in the field of cloning before he was arrested and detained in August after authorities received a tip about an alleged embezzlement of research funds.

On Friday, the Ministry of Science and Technology revealed details of Li's case as well as that of four other professors reportedly involved in academic fraud.

According to the ministry's report, academics penalized during the case included Chen Yingxu, a former Zhejiang University professor, as well as Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications professor Song Maoqiang.

Chen, who had been a researcher with the Ministry of Environmental Protection, was ordered to spend 10 years in prison for embezzling research funds of almost 10 million yuan while Song was sentenced the same period of imprisonment for corruption and embezzlement charges.

Before getting involved in the scam, Chen had been responsible for studying the treatment and control of water pollution in the country.

Meanwhile, two professors from the Beijing University of Chinese Medicine namely Li Pengtao and Wang Xinyue, who had been with the National Health and Family Planning Commission developing a new medicine, were also punished for embezzling money from their research project.

In China, academic corruption had become rampant over the past recent years.

That is why the Ministry of Education stressed to college educators attending a convention last week of the punishments violators would face should they take bribes from students and parents, misuse research funds, plagiarize or copy other's academic achievements or any other act against the academe's code of conduct.

Punishments include a demerit on their employment records, demotion, suspension, termination or possible criminal detention depending on the gravity of their violation.

Tagsprofessor, Code of Conduct, embezzlement of funds, Fraud