February 22, 2011
Is this Irony or Absurdity?: Saif al-Islam Al Qadhafi's Disseration
Saif "will fight to the last minute, until the last bullet" Qadhafi's dissertation :"THE ROLE OF CIVIL SOCIETY IN THE DEMOCRATISATION OF GLOBAL GOVERNANCE INSTITUTIONS: From ‘Soft Power’ to Collective Decision-Making? (seriously)
This dissertation analyses the problem of how to create more just and democratic global governing institutions, exploring the approach of a more formal system of collective decision-making by the three main actors in global society: governments, civil society and the business sector. The thesis seeks to make a contribution by presenting for discussion an addition to the system of international governance that is morally justified and potentially practicable, referred to as ‘Collective Management’. The thesis focuses on the role of civil society, analysing arguments for and against a role for civil society that goes beyond ‘soft power’ to inclusion as voting members in inter-governmental decision-making structures in the United Nations (UN) system, the Bretton Woods institutions, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and other institutions.
The thesis defends the argument that inclusion of elected representatives of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in tripartite decision-making structures could potentially create a more democratic global governing system. This conclusion is supported by a specially-commissioned survey of leading figures in NGOs and IGO decision-making structures.
[H/t: John Western]
Posted by Robin Varghese at 12:01 AM | Permalink
Comments
Apparently, much of the dissertation is plagiarized. A wiki has been set up to report the instances of plagiarism and is fast accumulating them: http://saifalislamgaddafithesis.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page
What a shock!
Posted by: Abbas Raza | Feb 22, 2011 8:52:10 AM
This really calls into question the value and validity of an LSE degree. It certainly comes as no shock that Saif either plagiarized or (as other rumours have it, simply paid someone to write it for him), but if people on Wiki can so easily identify obvious instances of plagiarism, how is that this 2007 thesis passed muster with the LSE and they awarded him a doctorate? You mean to tell me people on Wiki can more easily catch plagiarism than the LSE's thesis evaluators, whom one would presume are exeprts in thier field? Or were they just afraid Saif or his daddy would send some goons and thugs after them if they didn't give him the degree? Either way, it makes the LSE look craven and pathetic.
Posted by: Dennis | Feb 22, 2011 1:44:54 PM
Sorry to say, many dissertations are "edited" into passable form, with the editors knowing exactly how not to wave a red flag, lest wary profs smell a rat. Whoever thinks all grad students with money invariably do all their own work, even writing their own apps for positions in graduate programs, is very naive. Young people with money are used to paying others to do their work for them -- they may see their role as something like consumer/manager of the labor of others, never sensing there are some things you don't buy. Proctored examinations are helpful in defeating this, of course, but for high level grad programs, I believe there should be proctored application essays with plenty of surprise instructions. While being able to write on your feet is no guarantee of integrity, failing to write cogently about your plans and qualifications for entering a program that would turn you into a member of the intelligentsia might give even the most craven gatekeeper an idea that you need not be let in. Then there's the old folkway of having to "defend" your thesis -- what a superb way to find out if the doctoral candidate even wrote it!
Posted by: Elatia Harris | Feb 22, 2011 2:50:48 PM
It came out last week that the German minister of defense, Guttenberg, copy/pasted his dissertation from start to finish (if he even bothered to do that himself): see http://de.guttenplag.wikia.com/wiki/GuttenPlag_Wiki (the graph speaks for itself if you don't read German). After some evasions, he decided (per impossibile, as it happens) to "hand back his degree." The fact that he is an academic fraud doesn't seem to have affected his general popularity much - with more than a few people, to the contrary.
Posted by: Tom | Feb 22, 2011 10:55:02 PM
A minister from one of Israel's religious parties passed on someone else's MA thesis as his own. If he had bothered to read it first, he might have noticed that it had been written by a woman, using the first person feminin form!
Posted by: aguy109 | Feb 23, 2011 10:13:02 AM
Yes. Saif is known to have paid people to write his papers and probably parts of his dissertation for him. When I was a student at LSE, I knew people who received a lot of cash for those services...
Posted by: MK | Feb 23, 2011 10:50:59 AM
Dennis asks whether the LSE might have been afraid of goons and thugs if they didn't give him his PhD. They may have been at least as afraid that the £1,500,000 which his charitable foundation committed to their Global Governance Centre wouldn't be forthcoming. (Apparently, they've only got £300,000 as yet, and are reconsidering the rest.)
Posted by: Jennifer Hornsby | Feb 23, 2011 11:52:35 AM
@aguy
it was not a minister from Israel, but high ranking civil servants ( former Northern District police commander Alik Ron, and Teachers Union chief Avraham Ben-Shabbat) that wanted to boost their wages with a Latvian "correspondence" degree;they were under house arrest and now under justice procedures. The minister with false degree is Iranian: Ali Kordan with a law degree obtained from one of the world's most elite institutions, the University of Oxford.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/aug/13/ali.kordan.oxford
On Plagiarism we have also an Iranian hero:Iran's science and education minister Kamran Daneshjou, a professor in the school of mechanical engineering at the Iran University of Science & Technology (IUST) in Tehran
http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090930/full/461578a.html
and some Pakistani
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/06/201063075850596705.html
However you don't have to steal; in a second search on Google I found:
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And more examples:
With the amount of time and money it takes to earn a college degree, it's often tempting to just say "screw it" and buy your credentials from a diploma mill. Although there are hundreds of fake universities online that allow you to purchase degrees, it's pretty easy nowadays to get busted and it's not worth the risk or the shame in getting caught. Just ask the following 10 people who got exposed for having fake degrees and paid the price (well, 9 of them did, anyway).
10.) Legal Consultant Becomes Defendant Thanks to Fake Credentials
Richard Gottfried, a self-proclaimed "sentencing expert," consulted for multiple criminal defense lawyers in Center City, Philadelphia and milked the city courts out of nearly $400,000 before his credentials were questioned and ultimately debunked. If you want to go from consultant to defendant in the blink of an eye, just order a fake law degree from a diploma mill and claim you've got a state psychologist license.
9.) Jang Mi-hee Confesses to Being a Jang-Mi-liar
Korean movie star Jang Mi-hee, who later became a theater and visual arts professor at Myongji College, confessed that she lied about her educational background and never graduated from her purported alma mater Hawthorne University (which, incidentally, turned out to be an unaccredited university). In a country that places such emphasis on education, it's especially embarrassing to be a celebrity professor with bogus credentials.
8.) Ireland's Government Science Advisor's College Degree is a Load of Blarney
Barry McSweeney enjoyed the distinction of the first Chief Science Advisor to the Government of Ireland. Unfortunately, his title was short-lived and the scientist was forced to resign after the Irish Independent dug around and discovered that his PhD had been obtained from an unaccredited institution. Apparently it looks suspicious when you claim to have obtained a PhD after only 12 months of study (unless you're Doogie Howser, that is).
7.) Georgia Teachers Have Fake Degrees on Their Minds
Nearly a dozen teachers, counselors and principals in Georgia got investigated for purchasing fake advanced degrees from an unaccredited online university in Liberia that grants master's and doctorate degrees based on "life experience"…and about $1,500, of course. The fake degrees boosted the educators' salaries by thousands of dollars, which proved to be a nice but short-lived perk of buying life experience.
6.) California Firemen are Liar Liars, Forced to Put out Own Pants Fires
16 Sacramento County firefighters landed in hot water when the raises they were granted were earned via a diploma mill. The firefighters received about $50,000 in "education wage incentive raises" for earning degrees from three online universities that aren't properly accredited. Since California has no rules governing postsecondary education institutions, the firemen probably figured they'd be in the clear. Unfortunately for them, The Sacramento Bee smelled smoke and discovered a five-alarm fire.
5.) Iranian Interior Minister's Oxford Degree Ox-forged
Ali Kordan, the Interior Minister of Iran, learned the hard way that a fake honorary degree from Oxford University isn't enough to stay in Parliament's good graces. Although Kordan maintained that he was duped by a fake Oxford affiliate office in Tehran, he was impeached in 2008 and got the boot.
4.) Football Coach Goes from the Fightin' Irish to Fightin' Fake Degree Allegations
In 2001 George O'Leary resigned as the Notre Dame football coach five days into his coaching gig after confessing that he lied about both his athletic and academic credentials. Not only did O'Leary make bogus claims about having played college football for three years, he also asserted that he had a master's degree in education from NYU. Both lies were caught by doing a simple background check which ended up sending the short-lived football coach packing.
3.) Laura Callahan Secures Our Nation's Homeland but Not Her College Education
Former senior director at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Laura Callahan was under investigation for obtaining fake Bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees in computer science from Hamilton University, a now-defunct diploma mill. Her fake credentials led to an 11-month investigation that uncovered multiple fake degrees held by numerous federal officials. Although Callahan did have a legit associate's degree, she resigned from her position.
2.) South Korean University Sues Over Fact Check Fail at Yale
In March 2008 Dongguk University in South Korea sued Yale University for $50 million and claiming that the ivy league college "publicly humiliated and deeply shamed" them. Dongguk hired an art history professor whose Yale degree arose questions of authenticity. When the university asked Yale to verify her credentials, they received a fax confirming her degree as being legit, but when they checked a second time, Yale had no record to confirm the professor's claim. Dongguk alleged that the mistake on Yale's part has led to embarrassment, a tarnished reputation, and a decline in donations and applications.
1.) L. Ron Hubbard Makes up an Entire Religion and a College
Not only has science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard made up a religion, he also fabricated his own PhD. A group of British diplomats who were investigating the…eccentric author's qualifications discovered that he awarded himself a PhD from a "sham diploma mill" that he acquired. Hubbard purchased space somewhere in Los Angeles and registered it as Sequoia University, then promptly awarded himself a doctorate from his newly established institution. He makes the other 9 people on this list look like amateurs because not only was he the only person who made up an entire college, he raked in over $200 million thanks to his, er, active imagination.
http://www.earnmydegree.com/online-education/learning-center/fake-degree-disasters.html
Posted by: Mirel | Feb 23, 2011 12:08:01 PM
Degrees aren't worth the paper they're printed on.
Posted by: Anon | Mar 21, 2011 4:23:19 PM
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