Re: <nettime> Twitter and the resignation of Germany's minister of defense

[Jeebesh <jeebesh@sarai.net>]

Here is another story :)

http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/article1501303.ece

The London School of Economics (LSE) on Tuesday ordered an  
investigation into allegations that the Libyan leader Colonel  
Qadhafi's son Saif al-Islam plagiarized parts of his PhD thesis which  
was examined by eminent economist and Labour peer Meghnad Desai.

It has been alleged that nearly a dozen passages in Mr Qadhafi?s 400- 
odd pages thesis appeared to have been lifted from elsewhere. It is  
also alleged that he might have used a "ghost-writer?? for his work.

Lord Desai was reported as saying that there was no evidence to  
suggest that the thesis was ghost-written.

"I read the thesis, I examined him with an examiner, he defended his  
thesis very, very thoroughly. He had nobody else present, and I don?t  
think there?s any reason to think he didn?t do it himself,?? The Times  
reported him saying.

The university said: "LSE is aware that there are allegations of  
plagiarism concerning the PhD thesis of Saif Qadhafi. The School takes  
all allegations of plagiarism very seriously, and is looking into the  
matter in accordance with standard LSE procedures."

The Oxford University Press was reported to have put off plans to  
publish the thesis.

Mr Qadhafi, who was a student at LSE from 2003 to 2008, donated ?1.5m  
to his alma mater from the Qadhafi International Charity and  
Development Foundation. Over the past week, students have staged  
protests demanding that the university "pay back?? to the Libyan  
people the ?300,000 that it has received so far.

LSE director Sir Howard Davies, admitted he felt "embarrassed" by the  
university's links with the Gaddafi family. He told the BBC that the  
decision to accept the funding Gaddafi had "backfired".

"We looked at the pros and cons of engaging with someone like Saif  
Qadhafi and with the problems in North Africa and we decided that we  
would do so?In retrospect we can say that, knowing what we know now  
and how he has behaved in this crisis, that's a judgment that we might  
have made differently," he said.

On 03-Mar-11, at 4:27 PM, Patrice Riemens wrote:

>A great story, Anna!
>
>>From the "there is something rotten..."department:
>
>Two questions remain, which have not yet - afaik - got much  attention,
>and probably interest those concerned with the accelerating demise of
>academic values - and usefulness. ('academic interest' indeed...;-)
 <...>


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