Plagiarism allegations against two FH professors – salzburg.ORF.at
According to the management of the FH, the termination of the two professors has nothing to do with the plagiarism allegations that are now being discussed. Because the layoffs had already been pronounced in June, while the FH only found out about the plagiarism allegations on Wednesday.
Labor court deals
The professor, who went public because of his resignation, plagiarized many “school materials without naming the source” in his thesis, said “plagiarism hunter” Stefan Weber to the Austria Press Agency on Wednesday. The published the topic in the morning.
The academic had turned to regional media in the course of his dispute before the labor court at the end of last week. After 13 years at the FH, he was suddenly fired without warning. Quote: “After the bachelor’s exams, a very renowned bachelor’s course and I was prevented from leaving the room. We were instructed very quickly that we would be terminated and taken off duty. We can then quickly pack everything up and leave the FH. “
“Plagiarism by paragraph and by page”
Because the man is fighting the dismissal in front of the labor court, the FH management has not issued a statement citing this ongoing procedure.
Weber, who is known for uncovering numerous plagiarized scientific works by celebrities, now checked the diploma theses of the two professors. In the 52-page work professors who had turned to the media, he found “plagiarism of text from paragraph to page”.
“Plagiarist then becomes a professor”
The sources are just as “shocking” as the copious plagiarism: In two cases, literature from the school context was verifiably plagiarized, ”said Weber.
And further: “A graduate student plagiarized school literature as well as a Berlin term paper in his thesis and submits this elaborate to the same university of applied sciences at which he later becomes a professor and then supervises bachelor theses himself. Now the question is obvious: Which citation and quality standards were actually in effect during the period of care of the ‘renowned’ specialist colleague? “
FH will examine intern nun
The professor concerned was initially unavailable for the APA on Wednesday morning. And the FH announced in a statement from an internal audit: “We have high scientific standards at our university of applied sciences. All work must comply with the examination regulations. With their signature, students affirm that they follow the quality standards. “
The reviewers are also bound by it: “It is therefore also important to us to examine the situation in detail. The plagiarism software ‘Turnitin’ is used at the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences, which is also very popular at other universities, ”said the University of Applied Sciences in its statement to the APA.
At the time of the thesis in 2001, however, there was no such software. The FH did not comment on the second diploma thesis because it had been submitted to another university.