German Science Minister Stripped of Her PhD 123
An anonymous reader writes "In a move likely to have major political implications, the University of Düsseldorf has revoked the doctoral degree of Germany's science and education minister, Annette Schavan. The committee investigating allegations of plagiarism came to the conclusion that she 'systematically and deliberately claimed as her own intellectual achievements which she had in fact not produced herself.' Schavan wants to appeal the decision in court and has not resigned from her post so far."
PhD's in Germany (Score:2, Informative)
Having a PhD in germany is a status symbol more than anything. I expect this type of thing to happen more often since plagiarism is the easiest way to achieve this status symbol.
Re:PhD's in Germany (Score:3, Informative)
Re:She wouldn't be the first (Score:5, Informative)
Mr. Guttenberg resigned because his whole Ph.D. - done outside the university while he was already a politician - was a lousy Copy&Paste job including copying papers done by the research arm of the parliament for him. Especially also in places where he claimed original thought.
Mrs. Schavan did the Ph.D. at the university before she started her career and seemingly ca. 15 years before she went into heavy politics. As far as I understand her Ph.D. was revoked because of incorrect citations (i.e. she named sources but not marked text as direct citation) in her literature section.
The only commonality is that both lost their Ph.D..
Re:should censure U of Dusseldorf too (Score:4, Informative)
How does a university not know a dissertation is full of plagiarism? [...] So how could this happen?
A) The Ph.D. thesis in question was submitted 1980. Long before computer checks and internet groups gathering to check Ph.D.s.
B) It was not "full of plagiarism". You might want to fetch (non-marked) copy from the net and find the sentences in question before you accuse others of intent.
Re:someone had to say it (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Smear campaign or missing job qualification? (Score:4, Informative)
Yes, people from her party claimed that the University didn't handle the case properly.
Just as people from opposing parties said the opposite.
This is just the usual politics.
The decision to strip her of her title was made by a commission with 15 or 16 members, with 2 opposing and 1 abstention.
So far, the German courts always upheld such decisions from Universities.
Mrs. Schavan has the right to appeal the decision. Doesn't mean she will get the result she's looking for.