The Council of Ministers approved the draft higher education bill on Wednesday. It provides for innovations in the plagiarism rules: it should become more difficult to revoke the title of people who have copied.
A limitation period is planned in the draft that is now before the House of Representatives. The possibility of withdrawing or revoking an academic degree due to plagiarism should therefore be barred. However, plagiarism itself should still not be subject to the statute of limitations, as evidenced by the Ministry of Education’s press release.
The title is assigned to the entire course
Education Minister Martin Polaschek (ÖVP) justified this change from the previous draft in the document by saying that a bachelor’s or master’s degree would be awarded for all courses, and not just for the scientific thesis.
However, when asked after the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, he did not want to say how many years after completion this limitation period starts. A draft of the University Act 2021 already provided for a limitation period: after 30 years, the academic degree may no longer be withdrawn. However, the project was halted due to constitutional issues.
The work of politicians was controlled
Recently, accusations of plagiarism have caused a lot of disruption in domestic politics: the self-proclaimed ‘plagiarism hunter’ Stefan Weber had scrutinized the final statements of several politicians and identified plagiarism in Justice Minister Alma Zadic (Greens) and Interior Minister Gerhard Karner . ÖVP).
However, no intent to deceive was established in the subsequent proceedings. There was therefore no question of revocation of a title. However, in January 2021, Labor Minister Christine Aschbacher (ÖVP) resigned amid allegations of plagiarism.
Source: Krone
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