Plagiarism in the focus again

Senate decides that that from now on a PhD can be withdrawn only by the university that has granted it.

Bogdan Matei, 11.10.2016, 13:36

Commonly an exclusive prerogative of academic elites, the originality, authenticity and value of PhD theses has become a topic of debate for the media, public opinion and the political class. On Monday, the Senate of Romania, which is Parliaments decision-making chamber on this matter, decided that a PhD could be withdrawn only by the university that granted it and that the Council for Doctoral Degree Certification would only play the role of an appeal forum.

On behalf of the technocratic government, the secretary of state with the Education Ministry, Laurentiu Vlad told the Senate that, although at a declarative level the new draft law was aimed at decentralising the PhD decision-granting and withdrawal process, in fact it threatened to undermine the quality of higher education.

Laurentiu Vlad: “At the moment, there are over 50 institutions accredited to organise doctoral degree programmes in Romania. Some of them are able to take full responsibility in providing doctoral studies, others do not.

The head of the Education Committee and a former education minister, the Social-Democrat Senator Ecaterina Andronescu retorted that the draft law increased the responsibility of universities and that nowhere in the world is there a separate institution that grants a PhD but a university. Furthermore, the National Council for the Certification of Academic Titles, Degrees and Certificates will still exist as an institution.

Ecaterina Andronescu: “The Council will be the appeal body for all PhD theses for which the PhD was granted under a ministers order; the PhD can only be withdrawn under a ministers order, so the National Council for Certification is the decision-making forum in case of irregularities.

President Klaus Iohannis now has to promulgate the amended Education Law as passed by the Senate, although initially he had sent it back to Parliament, warning that there was general distrust in the analysis of plagiarism notifications. Shortly after the Senators had cast their vote, Iohannis described as questionable the hurry in which action had been taken to amend the Education Law with no substantial debates being held, at a time when everybody expected integrity and performance.

The presidents consternation is shared by the media, all the more so as the Senates vote came three days after the PhD theses of former interior minister Petre Toba and of Florentin Pandele, the mayor of Voluntari, a satellite town of Bucharest, were found to be the outcome of plagiarism. That is the conclusion reached by an expert commission that has analysed the two theses, and confirmed by the Education Ministry last Friday. Dr. Toba and Dr. Pandele thus become a topic of ongoing heated debates in Bucharest on the allegedly plagiarised PhD theses of such public figures as former prime minister Victor Ponta, deputy prime minister Gabriel Oprea or the chief prosecutor of the National Anticorruption Directorate, Laura Codruta Kovesi.