http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?

story=20120818084937660

Issue 00235

19 August 2012

Register to receive our free newsletter by email each week

SEARCH

Advanced Search

Global Edition / News / World Round-up / Features / Commentary / World Blogs / Student View / Academic Freedom Special Reports Special Editions Africa Edition / Letters / Archives / HE Events Diary / About Us / Contact Us

THAILAND

Plagiarism controversy raises questions over academic integrity

Suluck Lamubol 18 August 2012 Issue No:235
Like 7 2 2

Join us on

Follow us on

Controversy over plagiarism in the PhD thesis of Supachai Lorlowhakarn, director of Thailands National Innovation Agency, or NIA, has highlighted concerns over academic integrity and a widespread culture of plagiarism. Bangkoks Chulalongkorn University revoked the PhD for the first time in the institutions history. On 21 June 2012, after a year-long investigation, the Chulalongkorn University council withdraw Supachais PhD in science, in a move that stunned the academic community in Thailand. In response, Supachai threatened to file a lawsuit against Chulalongkorns executive board and the council for abuse of power. He insisted that he had ownership rights to the disputed research used in the PhD, as he was the main author of the work. The investigation came after Thailand-based agricultural researcher Wyn Ellis claimed that Supachai had plagiarised most of his research, word for word, for his thesis. According to Ellis, he is the main author and project owner of the disputed research on Strengthening the Export Capacity of Thailands Organic Agriculture, which was commissioned by the Geneva-based UN International Trade Centre. The NIA served as counterpart agency with a role of facilitating the technical assistance team, which was led by Ellis. "NIA and Supachai had no role in the research," Ellis told University World News. Supachai, however, insisted that Ellis was merely a translator of the research. He admitted during a 25 June press conference in Bangkok that he had undertaken partial research", but said he had formed "new knowledge in the last chapter. Ellis told University World News that the original report had been written in English by him and three other members of the UN team, and was later translated into Thai. "ITC informed NIA and Supachai by email several times of its claim of copyright over the report, which is published in ITCs online library," Ellis claimed It was "extraordinary" that NIA, as a government agency, should disregard such a claim and republish the same report two years later under the NIA directors lead authorship, he argued. After the NIA directors PhD was awarded in 2007, Ellis filed plagiarism complaints with Chulalongkorn University. In an interview with the investigative news site Thaipublica, Ellis said he had also laid complaints with the Ministry of Science and Technology where the NIA is based and with the parliamentary committee on science and technology, but both failed to make progress on investigating. Chulalongkorn University set up an inquiry into the case in August 2009 and in April 2010 reported that Supachai has committed plagiarism in 80% of the 205-page thesis. The decision to revoke Supachais PhD did not come until much

News Feeds Global Edition Africa Edition

This Week
COMMENTARY

India Excellence without accountability?

Burma needs a change of attitude towards higher education

8/19/2012

15:12:14 PM

http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20120818084937660
later, after the university set up another committee to probe the facts of the case in 2011. This came after much criticism in the international media over Chulalongkorns failure to deal with the Supachai case. The PhD was finally withdrawn in June this year. Supachai, who maintains his executive position at the NIA, sued Ellis and then Bangkok Post journalist Erika Fry in 2009 for defamation, prompting Fry to flee Thailand. The case was dismissed, although Supachai recently received a six-month suspended sentence and a 6,000 baht (US$200) fine for criminal forgery in a 2009 case sued by Ellis over changes in his contract with the NIA, as reported by Thailand-based journalist Andrew Drummond on his website. Ellis told University World News that he had also called for retraction of an academic paper by Supachai and his academic advisers, published in 2008 in the Thai Journal of Agricultural Science, "on grounds of plagiarism and its flawed science". He alleged that the journal had refused to withdraw the paper without a court order, and had "failed to comply with a Final Notice of Copyright Infringement issued by Wageningen Academic Publishers on 20 September last year." Associate Professor Soraj Hongladarom, a philosophy professor and president of the universitys academic committee, said the decision to revoke Supachais doctorate degree was a step in a right direction. He said the university was installing software to tackle plagiarism and other academic misconduct. A more serious problem, however, was a widespread culture of plagiarism in the Thai education system, he said. The way students do their papers in primary and secondary schools is really pathetic. Teachers dont teach their students that cutting and pasting is wrong. Term papers are not for cutting and pasting, but are a place where students can explore thoughts and ideas of their own, on their own, he told University World News. The problem is that it is so widely practised that no one seems to think that it is wrong. Or it is because no one thinks its wrong that it is widely practised. Any way, the Thai educational authorities should be doing something to combat this Ambitious foreign student targets part of China's 'soft power' strategy Student groups in Ukraine need to unite
FEATURES

Top stories from last weeks edition

GLOBAL

Yes, MOOC is the higher education game changer

EUROPE

Inclusion in US post-secondary education is being undermined

WORLD BLOG

Can universities lead Europe out of crisis?

MALAWI

Students sue for losses during lecturer protests

GERMANY

Bologna reforms now implemented and widely accepted

SINGAPORE

Transnational education: A good -news story

IRAN

Huge rise in discrimination against women students

SOUTH AFRICA

Study finds link between research and economic growth

CHINA

New academic misconduct laws may not be adequate

INDIA

Disclaimer All reader responses posted on this site are those of the reader ONLY and NOT those of University World News or Higher Education Web Publishing, their associated trademarks, websites and services. University World News or Higher Education Web Publishing does not necessarily endorse, support, sanction, encourage, verify or agree with any comments, opinions or statements or other content provided by readers.

Frugal innovation path for cashstrapped research

TANZANIA

Mobile teaching assistance provides a model for teaching

Apps join the campaign to attract more foreign students to Poland

Australian universities seek more indigenous, rural and poor students

8/19/2012

15:12:14 PM