The North Dakota Supreme Court has upheld the dismissal of a suit...

The North Dakota Supreme Court has upheld the dismissal of a suit by a former graduate student whose Ph.D. was revoked amid plagiarism allegations, the Associated Press reported.

The Supreme Court agreed with a lower court that the former student needed to appeal within the university before suing.

 

Hmm. Do you have any weblink on this? How much evidence of plagiarism was there? How long does the university have to revoke degrees?

 

Link to story

here's a link to another news story with a little more info

 

Personally, I have not seen this guy's dissertation nor the work it was allegedly plagiarized from, but two things need to be pointed out. First, even if this particular case does not fit this criterion, I am sure that sooner or later, some student will have his/her degree revoked by some power-drunk grad school dean or professor based upon a false accusation. And, seriously, when that happens, do you think that any amount of internal processes of the university will insure a fair hearing for the student? (Heck no!) Second, why the criminy was this guy's committee asleep at the wheel before the granting of the degree? If they had actually bothered to read the dissertation and actually check his sources, this could have been caught before the award of the degree (assuming, of course, that maybe there was real plagiarism going on and not just some half-baked accusations).

 

As a former Grand Forks native, one who spent a lot of time on the UND campus and who had a lot of contact with the faculty there, I am saddened by this story.

The Teaching and Learning program at UND is truly a quality outfit. However, they went through a couple of years of being dramatically understaffed. I think they've been working to correct that situation over the last few years. I think that they may have been too aggressive in admitting students into their programs--more than they could rightfully accomodate with appropriate supervision. This resulted in faculty members being overburdened with supervisory resopnsibilities. It isn't altogether suprising, then, that a scenario of this sort could occur.

Prior to entering the PhD at Pretoria, I has seriously considered the PhD in Teaching and Learning at UND. While I ultimately decided that the program wasn't right or feasible for me, I continue to have a high regard for it. In fact, a graduate of that program is presently assisting me with the survey project for my own dissertation.