Thursday, May 13, 2010

Civil servant loses Dr Title, but keeps job

German (and Austrian) civil servants love having and using academic titles. Spiegel online reported in April (but I am just now getting around to sorting all this out) on the case of a top-level German civil servant who was stripped of his doctorate by the University of Göttingen when the thesis was discovered to be a plagiarism, but who remains in his job because a doctorate was not a necessary precondition for the job.

He was also taken to court by the public prosecuter, found guilty, and fined 9000 Euros (or 90 days in jail). The thesis adviser defended his not discovering the plagiarism because he can't possibly know all of the literature used...

Since his job is an elective one with a term of office until 2016, the political parties are still trying to at least get him "retired". This would still leave him with 70% of his current monthly pay. He could be retired if found to have "dishonorable conduct" - but this will probably have to be tested in court.

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