Plagiarism issue continues to plague education ministry

Weng Cheng-i (翁政義), chairman of the National Science Council, officially approved yesterday a report by a nine-member investigation team that found Peng Tso-kwei (彭作奎) had plagiarized the work of another scholar.

Peng is the president of National Chungshing University (中興大學). The investigation team said Peng had passed off as his own the work of Bruce Gardner, a professor of agricultural and resource economics at the University of Maryland.

Meanwhile, Minister of Education Ovid Tzeng (曾志朗) responded to criticism yesterday that the ministry is avoiding taking responsibility for Peng. The ministry has asked Chungshing officials to decide whether to remove Peng from his post -- instead of deciding on its own.

Tzeng said yesterday said that the ministry was only showing respect to the school's board and Peng in asking the school board to decide the Peng matter.

"This is a thorny issue. The ministry does not want to hurt either side," Tzeng told Peng during a telephone conversation yesterday.

Tzeng continued to urge Chungshing's board yesterday to decide the matter on its own.

"If the school board insists on not taking action," Tzeng said, "the ministry will then have to make the decision by itself."