Statute of limitations planned
New university law: Withdrawal of titles for plagiarism made more difficult
The Council of Ministers approved the draft for the higher education law package on Wednesday. It provides for changes to the plagiarism rules: It should be more difficult to revoke the title of people who have copied.
A statute of limitations is planned in the draft, which will now be submitted to parliament. The possibility of revoking or withdrawing an academic degree due to plagiarism should therefore become time-barred. However, plagiarism itself should still not become time-barred, as the Ministry of Education's press release states.
Title awarded for entire degree course
Education Minister Martin Polaschek (ÖVP) justified this change to the previous draft in the document by stating that Bachelor's or Master's titles would be awarded for all academic achievements, not just for the academic thesis.
However, when asked on Wednesday after the Council of Ministers, he did not want to say how many years after graduation this statute of limitations would apply. A statute of limitations was already provided for in a draft for the 2021 Universities Act: After 30 years, it should no longer be possible to revoke the academic degree. However, the plan was dropped due to constitutional concerns.
Politicians' work examined
Plagiarism allegations have recently caused quite a stir in Austrian politics: the self-appointed "plagiarism hunter" Stefan Weber scrutinized the theses of several politicians and found plagiarism in the work of Justice Minister Alma Zadic (Greens) and Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP), for example.
However, no intent to deceive was found in subsequent proceedings. A title was therefore not revoked. In January 2021, however, Minister of Labor Christine Aschbacher (ÖVP) resigned due to allegations of plagiarism.
Kommentare
Willkommen in unserer Community! Eingehende Beiträge werden geprüft und anschließend veröffentlicht. Bitte achten Sie auf Einhaltung unserer Netiquette und AGB. Für ausführliche Diskussionen steht Ihnen ebenso das krone.at-Forum zur Verfügung. Hier können Sie das Community-Team via unserer Melde- und Abhilfestelle kontaktieren.
User-Beiträge geben nicht notwendigerweise die Meinung des Betreibers/der Redaktion bzw. von Krone Multimedia (KMM) wieder. In diesem Sinne distanziert sich die Redaktion/der Betreiber von den Inhalten in diesem Diskussionsforum. KMM behält sich insbesondere vor, gegen geltendes Recht verstoßende, den guten Sitten oder der Netiquette widersprechende bzw. dem Ansehen von KMM zuwiderlaufende Beiträge zu löschen, diesbezüglichen Schadenersatz gegenüber dem betreffenden User geltend zu machen, die Nutzer-Daten zu Zwecken der Rechtsverfolgung zu verwenden und strafrechtlich relevante Beiträge zur Anzeige zu bringen (siehe auch AGB). Hier können Sie das Community-Team via unserer Melde- und Abhilfestelle kontaktieren.