Too much attention is paid to academic titles and too little to the substantial contribution they should indicate, says Brian Bloch
In January, Austrian minister Christine Aschbacher became the latest in a long line of politicians in central and eastern Europe to be accused of plagiarising their academic theses – but one of the few to resign over it. She gave up her cabinet post for labour, family and youth in the wake of allegations that both her master’s and doctoral dissertations were plagiarised and characterised by severe linguistic weaknesses – the latter causing much amusement among Austrians.
It is a point not often made, but the perpetrators of plagiarism are not the only ones facing reputational and/or career harm. Repeated cases can impact upon entire institutions or perhaps countries. The sobering reality is that entirely honest and hard-working students can find the value of their degree undermined without them doing anything wrong.
Also accused around the same time were the Speaker of the Slovakian parliament, Boris Kollár, and the country’s education minister, Branislav Gröhling – who, ironically, had been tasked by Matovič with coming up with a law to allow all theses to be checked for plagiarism. Kollár apologised but refused to resign. Gröhling admitted his thesis had shortcomings but, backed by his university, also declined to step down (he resigned last week in a row over the government’s handling of Covid-19).
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