The student argued that the school should be held responsiblöe for the cut-and-paste paper since his work was supervised by his ex-lover and was submitted after their affair had turned sour. 

The 24-year old student from Canton Jura in western Switzerland is a few years older than normal high school pupils. He moved to Lausanne in January 2010 to attend the Ecole Lémania private school to study for his high school leaving exam, Blick newspaper reports.

The lovestruck young man, referred to as “Serge”, quickly became smitten with his 32-year-old biology teacher. Soon afterwards, they became a couple and even lived together.

The biology teacher agreed to supervise Serge’s final thesis on the subject of extreme weight loss. However, the couple split soon after, before Serge was finished with his final project. 

“It is unnecessary to explain what type of atmosphere prevails between the pair,” Serge’s lawyer told 24 Heures newspaper.

Despite the setback, Serge submitted his final thesis. It was promptly rejected for plagiarism after it emerged that large sections were copied straight from the internet and included without references.

The student blames his ex-lover since she was supposed to be overseeing his work. The rejection of the thesis meant he was unable to graduate.

Serge submitted a legal case against the school to the Federal Administrative Court (BVG).

He claims to be convinced that the school management knew that he was romantically linked with his teacher. Despite this knowledge, he said they allowed the teacher to oversee his final thesis.

Serge blames the school for his failure: “No one raised the alarm or did anything,” he said.