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German Science Minister Stripped of Her PhD

Posted by Soulskill on from the politician-lied-film-at-11 dept.

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."

6 of 123 comments (clear)

  1. someone had to say it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Annette Schavan stripped"

    do NOT want!

  2. Oh, the irony!! by MightyMait · · Score: 5, Funny

    "A university committee yesterday evening confirmed accusations, first aired last May, of plagiarism in Schavan’s ethical-philosophical dissertation entitled ‘People and conscience — studies on the conditions, necessity and requirements for formation of conscience today’."

    Naturally!!

    --
    Nothing interesting to say...MUST...NOT...REPLY...ohtheheckwithit.
    1. Re:Oh, the irony!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Actually the irony gets even better.: A year ago she publicly humiliated another politician because of his shoddy "copy & paste" PhD. http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/german-press-review-of-the-annette-schavan-plagiarism-scandal-a-881783.html

  3. Re:PhD's in Germany by vlm · · Score: 5, Funny

    Google search for "That's a sweeping and unfair generalization." shows 14 results... Looks like you've got some explaining to do, Mr "I don't use footnotes", or you're about to be stripped of your second post achievement.

    Now I'm doing it right, put my post in quotes and google for it and "did not match any documents" is the result.

    --
    "Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
  4. Meanwhile in the US by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    current Committee on Science, Space and Technology member Paul Broun...

    " embryology, evolution, and the Big Bang are "lies straight from the Pit of Hell ... lies to try to keep me and all the folks who are taught that from understanding that they need a savior."

    former Committee on Science, Space and Technology member Todd Akin...

    "If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down. "
    on Evolution - "I don’t see it as even as a matter of science, because I don’t know if you can prove one or the other."

    -------
    I'd love to see that kind of zeal put on the backgrounds of US politicians.

  5. Bribes-for-PhD's scams reported in Germany. by Andy+Prough · · Score: 5, Interesting

    There are some very interesting articles on the "bribes-for-PhD" scam in Germany: In 2008 Time Magazine reported on an investigation into around 100 cases of bribes for PhDs: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1919339,00.html. One blogger claims 500 to 700 PhD's are illegitimately "purchased" each year by aggressive career-climbing German lawyers, managers and politicians. The blogger provides numerous citations: http://ktwop.wordpress.com/tag/guttenberg-fraud/. In 2011, the DW German news outlet called some German PhD's "cut and paste": http://www.dw.de/academic-consultants-target-phd-wannabes/a-14852460-1.