PM’s plagiarism scandal puts spotlight on culture of academic cheating in Romania - The Washington Post

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Plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty are endemic in Romania.

After communism fell in 1989 and Romania pursued free market reforms, a large number of private universities and institutes opened, offering what some say were spurious academic qualifications. Cheating starts early in Romania and is widely acknowledged as common in schools. Teachers are known to accept bribes in exchange for turning a blind eye to students who copy during exams.

There have been widespread reports about cheating in university finals. Medical colleges have been accused of selling exam papers and questions in advance to students, eroding trust in doctors.

Ponta completed his doctorate in 2004 when he was a state secretary under former Prime Minister Adrian Nastase, who has just been sentenced to two years in prison in a corruption case. Nastase has appealed and denies the allegations.

The Nature journalist who wrote the article said the science magazine published the allegations because of concerns about Romania’s academic integrity. >>>

Romania: Plagiarism Scandal Ensnares Prime Minister - The New York Times

Prime Minister Victor Ponta has been accused of plagiarizing half of his doctoral thesis. The science magazine Nature reported Monday that an anonymous whistle-blower had provided it with documents that indicate that more than half of Mr. Ponta’s 432-page thesis, written in 2004 on the International Criminal Court, was plagiarized from the work of two Romanian law scholars. Mr. Ponta denied the accusations, but addressed the issue on Tuesday by saying: “The only reproach I have is that I did not list authors at the bottom of each page, but put them in the bibliography at the end. If this is a mistake, then I am willing to pay for it.” His government less than two months old, Mr. Ponta has had to devote an exceptional amount of time to responding to allegations of academic misdeeds. His first education minister resigned on plagiarism accusations relating to a book about Romania’s entry into the European Union. His second quit soon afterward, also accused of copying academic work. Elsewhere in Europe, President Pal Schmitt of Hungary and Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg of Germany resigned when accused of plagiarism.

Romanian prime minister accused of plagiarism - The Guardian

Victor Ponta copied parts of his doctoral thesis from two law scholars, claims scientific journal

A scientific journal has claimed that Romania's new prime minister has copied large swaths of his doctoral thesis without proper attribution.

Nature said in a press release it had seen documents that indicated that more than half of Victor Ponta's 432-page thesis on the international criminal court was plagiarised from a work of two Romanian law scholars.

The state news agency, Agerpres, said Ponta denies the allegation and is offering to submit his work to "any kind of test". Ponta accused the Romanian president, Traian Basescu, a bitter political rival, of orchestrating the attack.

Ponta became prime minister on 7 May after the previous government was ousted after losing a confidence vote. Two of his appointments for education minister stepped down after they were accused of plagiarism

Plagiarism charge for Romanian minister - NATURE

 Alison Abbott

Romania’s new government was thrown into turmoil last week after its education and research minister, Ioan Mang, was accused of extensive plagiarism in at least eight of his academic papers.

The allegations first began circulating on 7 May, just hours after Prime Minister Victor Ponta, a Social Democrat, announced the appointment of Mang and other ministers of the new government. Last week, former prime minister Emil Boc, of the Democratic Liberals, called for Mang’s resignation, dramatically waving the allegedly plagiarized articles and the original papers in front of television cameras.

The scandal has dismayed many Romanian scientists, who are already nervous that the incoming centre-left coalition government might reverse some of the energizing reforms that were introduced by the previous centre-right coalition to improve the country’s sluggish research system.

The radical education and research laws approved last year were designed to introduce competition for positions and research funds, and to eliminate endemic nepotism and other corrupt practices in Romanian academia (see Nature 469, 142–143; 2011). That government also passed a new anti-plagiarism law, which created a Research Ethics Council comprising high-ranking scientists selected by the research minister, and stated that any academic found guilty of such misconduct would automatically lose their job. >>>

Romania's education minister caught in plagiarism row - The Sunday Times

BUCHAREST (AFP) - Romania's new education minister is embroiled in a plagiarism row, forcing the prime minister to call for an investigation into claims that he copied swathes of foreign research works.

This new copycat scandal in Europe comes after Germany's defence minister Theodor zu Guttenberg and Hungary's president Pal Schmitt had to resign in the past few months because of plagiarism.

But the fact that this time a minister of education, Mr Ioan Mang, is suspected has angered the scientific community in Romania even more.

Mr Mang, 53, a professor at the IT Faculty of Oradea University in north-west Romania, was accused this week by researchers from Japan, Israel and Taiwan of copying their academic work on information technologies - even including some mistakes - in several of his papers.

Romanian education minister accused of plagiarism - The Sun Daily