Inquiry into associate vice-president's doctoral dissertation is city's latest campus controversy
JENNIFER NGO AND SHIRLEY ZHAO
PUBLISHED : Thursday, 12 November, 2015, 5:32am
UPDATED : Thursday, 12 November, 2015, 5:32am
Lingnan University staged a protest against the CY Leung's appointment of five new council members. Photo: Nora Tam
Lingnan University announced yesterday it has formed a panel to investigate an allegation that its associate vice-president Herdip Singh plagiarised his doctoral dissertation, while a news report said a university council member allegedly helped Singh fast-track and get his doctorate degree.
Council member Alex Lee Ye-lick refused to comment on an allegation that he had helped Singh obtain his doctorate degree from Tarlac State University in the Philippines in just a year through his company Lifelong College, but said the college would internally investigate the matter.
After a report surfaced over his alleged involvement, Lee said yesterday: "An investigation of the dissertation plagiarism allegation will be handed over to [Lingnan], but we will also have an internal investigation."
But on the issue of his alleged involvement in helping Singh obtain his doctorate, Lee said: "I'm currently seeking legal advice, and so cannot comment on this."
The panel comprised a chairman - Jesus Seade, chair professor of the university's department of economics - and two other senior-ranking professors.
Singh could not be reached for comment yesterday.
The revelations came after the University of Hong Kong council's controversial decision to reject pro-democratic scholar Johannes Chan Man-mun for a key managerial post in September. One reason for the decision cited by council members, according to aleaked audio recording of council member Professor Arthur Li Kwok-cheung's comments during the September council meeting, was that Chan lacked a doctorate degree.
Dr Ng Shun-wing, head of the Institute of Education's department of education policy and leadership, said if academics working at a university wanted to gain promotion opportunities, a doctorate degree would normally be a must. Having a doctorate degree also meant that a scholar would gain more respect and renown, Ng added.
He said it would usually take two to three years to secure a doctorate degree and that some scholars might take shortcuts because they did not want to do the hard work or wanted to get promoted quickly. He said shortcuts often included enlisting a business to help write the thesis or taking passages from others' works without crediting them.
Ng said if a scholar was found to have been promoted through plagiarism, his or her employing university could revoke the promotion, ban the scholar from being promoted for a period of time or even fire him or her, depending on the plagiarism's severity and noting different universities have different protocols.
Lee established Life-Long Education Centre in 1998, introducing non-local undergraduate and graduate degrees in 2003; Lifelong College began in 2005 to offer a "wider range of operations", according to its website.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/1877989/another-hong-kong-campus-controversy-lingnan
