National Taiwan University (NTU) on Friday passed a motion to have students enrolled in graduate or doctoral programs sign a plagiarism declaration stating that their thesies conform to ethics standards and are original, amid a spate of incidents that saw politicians accused of academic plagiarism ahead of the Nov. 26 local elections.
The motion to amend its rules on the qualification examinations for master’s and doctoral degrees was passed in an internal administrative meeting.
The university’s administrators voted to have all students that have passed their mandatory thesis defense sign a plagiarism declaration stating the integrity and originality of their work and provide the results of plagiarism detection software on the document before they can graduate.
Photo: Yang Mien-chieh, Taipei Times
The declaration states that there was no fabrication, falsification, plagiarism or ghostwriting involved in the production of the thesis, and that the student will accept all legal liability if the statement is found to be false.
The passage of the motion formalized a practice that had been adopted by the NTU’s management after an academic ethics review committee at the school determined that former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taoyuan mayoral candidate Lin Chih-chien (林智堅) had plagiarized his thesis at NTU’s Graduate Institute of National Development.
Following the announcement, the university rescinded Lin’s diploma and degree, leading to his withdrawal from the mayoral race.
He was replaced by DPP Legislator Cheng Yun-peng (鄭運鵬) as the party’s candidate.
More allegations of academic plagiarism have since been made, mostly through media reports or by DPP members, against candidates and members of other parties.
Participants of the meeting also passed an addendum stating that the university’s Office of Academic Affairs must report theses deemed to contain serious breaches of academic integrity to the personnel department, which would then have to hold faculty members who served as the theses’ advisers accountable.
Asked by reporters what would constitute a “serious breach,” academic affairs office head Ding Shih-torng (丁詩同) yesterday cited as an example cases where students’ degrees were revoked.
However, no punishments would be imposed on the adviser if, for example, a thesis was found to contain only a small paragraph copied from other published material, which is considered a minor breach of ethics rules, he said.
In Friday’s meeting, the university administration also passed a motion that stated if a diploma was to be conferred upon a student of a part-time graduate program, it must bear wording that differentiates it from diplomas awarded to full-time graduate students.
The university’s administration said it is necessary to make such a distinction because part-time program graduates often demonstrate superior job skills than those who attended full-time programs.
So far, only 13 of the 25 part-time graduate programs for working professionals at the university make the distinction on the diplomas.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday briefed her party’s Central Standing Committee regarding her scheduled visit to the US between Monday next week and June 16, saying that her purpose would be to persuade the US that the Republic of China (ROC) Constitution was a “one China” constitution that would foster stable and peaceful cross-strait relations. The ROC Constitution is the most important defense for all Taiwanese citizens, as it upholds our democracy and has contributed to our robust economy, which aligns with international and US interests, she said. “We would not be troublemakers and drag the US under,”
RSS