The woman had already been reported to the National Disciplinary Offences Board (Statens Ansvarsnämnd) in September for grading her son’s paper and registering the results, and she was given an official warning.

However, in October the woman did the same again, and was duly caught by the authorities.

In the report, it is explained that the professor claimed to understand that she should not be marking her son’s paper and giving it a grade, yet did so anyway.

However, it was brought to the authority’s attention the second time around when the mother gave a set of exam papers to a colleague to “double check”. Included in the nine papers was the professor’s son’s paper, already marked.

“I’ve never heard of this kind of double check,” said Kristine Widlund, a lawyer of the university’s human resources department, to the Sydsvenskan newspaper.

“When the colleague was given the exam paper to check, the professor had already gone through it.”

The professor now risks a pay cut, which Widlund stresses is “more serious than a warning”.

Regardless of how the Board assesses the situation, the university spokesmen are making it clear that such behavior is unacceptable at Lund University.

“Now it’s a repeat. It’s very difficult to understand. You could understand that the first time may have been just carelessness or a mistake but it’s hard to imagine when it is repeated,” said university vice-chancellor Per Eriksson to Sydsvenskan.

“I don’t want to believe that it was a conscious decision, but this is not acceptable.”