National Sun Yat-sen University on Wednesday said that it would revoke the master’s degree of Kao-hsiung City Councilor Jane Lee (李眉蓁), the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate in the Kaohsiung mayoral by-election on Saturday last week, as it has found that her thesis was largely plagiarized.
The announcement came after an investigation by an academic ethics review committee of the university’s College of Social Sciences, the school said in a press release.
All committee members, including three outside experts, agreed that Lee had plagiarized her thesis and unanimously voted in favor of revoking her degree to comply with the Degree Conferral Act (學位授予法), it said.
Photo: CNA
The university would also conduct an internal investigation into the role of Lee’s academic adviser, the school said, adding that it would also take steps to prevent future plagiarism attempts, including stricter supervision of thesis proposals.
Following the announcement, Lee said that she accepted the decision and hoped it would bring an end to the controversy.
Lee’s academic record came under scrutiny late last month, after she was nominated as the KMT candidate in the Kaohsiung’s mayoral by-election, which followed the ouster of former Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the KMT on June 6.
According to media reports during the campaign period, Lee allegedly plagiarized most of her 2008 master’s thesis when she was a student at the university’s Institute of Mainland China Studies.
While Lee initially said that the allegations were false and politically motivated, she later apologized for her “personal failings,” saying she was “renouncing” the degree.
In response, the university said that it had no guidelines for such a move.
In the by-election, Democratic Progressive Party candidate Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) won with 671,804 votes (70.03 percent), defeating Lee (25.90 percent) and Taiwan People’s Party candidate Wu Yi-jheng (吳益政), who received 4.06 percent of the votes.
Chen was yesterday confirmed as Kaohsiung mayor-elect by the Central Election Commission.
He is to take over from acting Kaohsiung Mayor Yang Ming-chou (楊明州) on Monday, and is to serve the reminder of the mayoral term that ends in December 2022.
EXCUSES: Beijing is using government and research vessels as a pretext to harass the nation and enter its EEZ, and engage in ‘hegemonic expansion,’ the coast guard said The Coast Guard Administration yesterday said it drove away Chinese oceanographic research vessel Xiang Yang Hong 22 (向陽紅33) from restricted waters after warning it that it was in Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ). The Chinese vessel entered restricted waters off the coast of Yilan County’s Suao (蘇澳) at 11:35pm on Thursday, the coast guard said, adding that it dispatched the Lanyu patrol vessel and the boat PP-10077 to shadow the Chinese ship and issue radio warnings ordering it to leave. China has no sovereignty over waters off Taiwan’s east coast, Lanyu’s crew told Xiang Yang Hong 22 over the radio, and demanded
BAIT AND SWITCH: Allowing KMT-run counties to sell to China while the threat of abrupt cancelations hangs overhead is another form of coercion, officials said Beijing is using agricultural purchase offers announced during the Straits Forum to deepen Taiwan’s dependence on the Chinese market, a Taiwanese official said yesterday as they criticized the Taitung County commissioner’s participation in the initiative. During the Straits Forum held in Xiamen on Saturday, Chinese officials announced a sales and purchase agreement for agricultural products from some counties led by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). Taitung County Commissioner Yao Ching-ling (饒慶鈴), who was barred from attending the event in person by the Mainland Affairs Council, participated via video. Under the agreement, China would purchase atemoyas, pomeloes, tea and grouper harvested in Taitung,
Four Taiwanese universities have been ranked among the world's top 200 institutions in the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings for next year, the highest Taiwan has ever placed in the category, with National Taiwan University (NTU) achieving its best performance at 54th globally and 17th in Asia. The four Taiwanese institutions in the global top 200 are NTU (54th), National Tsing Hua University (142nd), National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (177th) and National Cheng Kung University (191st), the rankings showed. All four universities achieved their highest-ever global rankings this year, QS data showed. National Cheng Kung University entered the top 200 for
Tropical Storm Mekkhala is forecast to strengthen into a typhoon tomorrow and could come close enough to Taiwan later in the week to prompt a sea warning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2 pm, the storm was located 1,870 kilometers southeast of Taiwan's southern tip and moving west- northwest at 23 km per hour. CWA forecaster Cheng Chieh-jen (鄭傑仁) said Mekkhala is expected to continue moving west-northwest through Tuesday under the influence of the Pacific high- pressure system before gradually turning north toward waters east of Taiwan or south of the Ryukyu Islands. The timing and angle of the
RSS